Down Memory Train
by Sir Sleeps-a-lot
Summary: It's been a pretty long time since Keima transferred out after that whole debacle at the Mai High Fest... What's the chances that Chihiro would end up running into him on a train of all places? Of course, some things did change with time, but it's up to Keima to change the rest...
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys... It's been a while, so I figured I wanted to write a little something. I am updating TFPD, but because it's a slow process, I figured a one-shot would be good too...**

 **So to elaborate, this was actually an idea I had in my head after the Goddess Arc was over and Keima x Chihiro was a distant dream... I figured Chihiro and Keima would meet some day in the distant future (or 4 years, in this case) and slowly but surely fall back in love... It turned out to be less of a comedy than I'd hoped, but what the hey... I liked this.**

 **Of course, I also came up with the trains thing long before _Kaminomi on the Train_ came out, so just so you know...**

 **Enjoy... I was up all day writing this.**

* * *

 **"The doors are now closing. Please be careful,"** Chihiro sighed in relief, thanking the Gods that I wasn't one of the days she was late. Instead, now she could just watch the poor shmuck that had been running and barely scraped it into the train, and was panting heavily.

It wasn't rush hour, so Chihiro could extend a little kindness. She fished a water bottle out of her bag and dangled it in front of the barely standing guy.

"Here… there's a free seat here as well," the guy nodded in gratitude and half-crawled to the seat she'd pointed at.

Honestly, Chihiro knew that feeling a little too well, considering she encountered it at least once a month since she started university… considering she'd been studying for three odd years, you think she would have learned by now.

Well, whatever… she had bigger fish to fry than her perpetual lateness… she still had that midterm in a week that she'd barely revised for.

The shmuck had finally settled down in his seat after rehydrating.

"Aren't you going to sit?"

"Nah, I'm good…" she bit her tongue, angry at herself… She's a lady now… even in casual conversation, she should stop with her casual language.

"I mean, no thanks. I study better while standing…"

Yeah, she should go read over her scribbles and hope that herself in the past actually wrote something worthwhile.

"Really… you hate studying, standing or otherwise…"

Maybe it was the train jolting into motion, or maybe it was the familiarity of that tone, but Chihiro's stomach jumped. Her eyes that had been watching her bag, slowly drifted up.

There, on the seat five feet away, sat Keima Katsuragi, a face she had neither expected, nor wanted, to see. Chihiro just stared without saying anything.

"Hi Chihiro…" he smiled. Her stomach clenched at that somewhat familiar sight.

"Katsuragi…" she murmured, noting his slightly grown appearance… at least considering when she last saw him. He had grown some stubble, and his face was more angular from before. However, his hair was still as messy as before and he still had the same rectangular glasses he wore in high school.

At that time, Chihiro had memorised his features in a love-driven haze, and since then, her brain thanked her by bringing up that picture whenever there was any guy she was mildly interested in… it made sense for her… he'd hurt her badly enough that any kind of commitment scared her.

And once again, he was back, his chocolate eyes as focused as ever... except now, it was on her.

"Don't you have some game to play?" she asked, more harshly than she wanted… She truly had forgiven him for what had happened at the festival… still, why now?

Chihiro clearly wasn't adult enough to deal with this.

"You want me to play games now!?" he asked incredulously, "I thought you'd be happy to reconnect with an old classmate."

Chihiro shot him a look. Both of them knew that 'classmate' was the last word she'd use to describe him.

To put it simply, they had been in the same class in the second year of high school. He sat diagonally from her, so she'd always grab a peek of his nerdy games…

However, she also got peeks at other things he did… like standing up to teachers about said games… or effortlessly acing whatever was put in front of him… or that goofy smile he got when he reached the climax of a really good game. It wasn't much of a surprise she fell in love with him…

It took a lot within her to admit it, because he was a Class A nerd, and falling for someone like him would ruin her reputation. However, at one point, when he was finally starting to show some interest back, she went for it and asked him out, throwing all caution to the wind.

The date had gone extremely well, and she could just feel herself falling more and more. So she did it… she showed him exactly how she felt. Reality slapped her in the face then, and killed all the hope that she had in her heart: Some guy who played games all the time would never like any girl outside of them…

As it turned out, there was a lot more in the story… one night later, she was running around town with some girl who had some freaky gadgets like glowing walkie talkies that could connect to little ear pieces and invisibility cloaks that completely fit her form. Then, she summoned a scythe out of nowhere and battled some similarly weird sadist girl…

And what were they doing around town? Chasing Katsuragi, who was trying to get her best friend, Ayumi, to fall in love with him, as that was some necessary plan to save the world.

Needless to say, Chihiro didn't understand it much either. She was just some poor outsider who got dragged into it. Katsuragi, on the other hand, was slap bang centre in that insanity. It was probably best that he had rejected her…

Yeah… Chihiro was best left out from that supernatural fold… however, that had been the most exciting evening in her mundane life…

True, lots of time had passed since then… she'd passed high school, gotten into University and basically had gotten on with her life. She knew it was a fat chance that she'd forget him, but still… she thought that chapter of her life was over and closed, even though most of the questions still hadn't been answered.

"You really don't want to talk, do you?" a hurt look crossed the man's face. Chihiro snapped out of it.

"It's not that," Chihiro flattened her skirt nervously, "I was just thinking…"

"About before…" a sombre look came to his face as he took a sip from the bottle. Chihiro, who was looking at him fully, quickly averted her eyes.

It was stupid for a 21 year old woman worrying about indirect kisses. She'd kissed Katsuragi already, dammit!

"You alright?" she noticed the worried edge behind his voice, and distracted him the way she always used to do.

"Can't you play some games already!?" The train, which was already silent enough, looked up at her outburst. She waited till the attention had calmed down a bit before walking to the other side of the carriage and taking a seat there, obviously avoiding everyone's eyes.

Chihiro was horribly embarrassed at herself… he was just a guy… she knew a lot of guys, some who were cooler and smarter than him… why is it just him? Wasn't she over him by now?

Yeah, of course she was! He'd trashed her heart in the worst way possible, which just made her even more cautious towards other guys, because she wasn't able to open up like how she did back then…

Yeah… plus he could still be gathering powers like the one Ayumi had… that's extra reason to not want to be with him.

But as she glanced up towards him, her heart kept beating against her chest… she really did miss him over the last four years. They were kind of antagonistic towards each other in class, but they were friends… kind of…

And damn, that stubble actually suits him!

Chihiro shook her head angrily. This is what got her into that situation in the first place. Regardless of whether she wanted his company or not, she wouldn't give in.

"Nee-san," a paper dropped on her lap. She looked up to see a young girl, all pig-tailed up and in a cute pink dress to match, "that Nii-san asked me to give this to you."

Chihiro didn't even need to look to guess who 'Nii-san' was. In any case, she understood how desperate Keima must have been to resort to have a carrier-child take a message to her. She opened it.

"About that time… I really am sorry. I'll explain what happened if you'd talk to me…"

That completely tore Chihiro… on one side, that one chapter could get completely resolved… though on the other side, she wasn't sure if she wanted all those questions answered… and if she went back, she'd have to go back to that said chapter…

"Nii-san didn't say it, but I think he really misses you…" the girl smiled adorably, showing a missing canine. That hit the limit with Chihiro…

Cute cats and cute girls… She would do anything for them.

"Alright, I'll go talk to him," the girl's already shiny eyes got brighter as she sped off back. Chihiro didn't allow herself to reconsider. She just walk back to the hanging strap which she had previously been standing by, looking sheepish.

"You came back…" Keima said hopefully. The tone was not lost on Chihiro.

"Well, I couldn't say no to her…" she nodded to the girl, who was unashamedly watching them from a few seats away, "though mostly, I was a little curious myself…"

"I guess that's to be expected… I think it may be a bit too heavy, considering it's only been ten minutes since I got here…"

The train jostled, and Chihiro had to squeeze the hanging strap to stop herself from falling.

"Alright…" she muttered, after steadying herself, "Did you know I was going to be here now?"

He shook his head.

"Only after you gave me the bottle did I realise that… Elsie did mention you studied around here, though…"

"Ah, I haven't seen her in a while. How is Ellie?"

"She's pretty good… her cooking has gotten better…"

"Oh, so it doesn't move anymore!?" Keima nodded again.

A wave of nostalgia hit Chihiro… She'd actually forgotten how easily they could talk when she wasn't being needlessly pissy or just trying her hardest to not show her feelings on her face. She used to enjoy it a lot…

"Well, I may have Ellie cook for me sometimes…" she muttered, her eyes glancing back on that little girl, who was still hanging on their every word.

That kind of made it harder to talk about anything supernatural… or anything, for that matter. In any case, it was probably be better to keep to the casual kind of talk.

"So… are you working or studying?" Chihiro asked.

"Being a NEET…" he replied, his face as clear as day. Chihiro snorted.

"That sounds so much like you, it's not even funny…" he shrugged.

"Actually, I'm more of a freelance writer… I just work from home," Chihiro nodded. That was like him… both the deadpan execution and the job.

"So what do you write?"

"Game scenarios… "

Chihiro groaned at how she didn't guess that. Dude is married to his games… now he can be married to the job about games.

"Also, I act as a beta tester for certain companies…"

"You really could not have chosen a career more suitable for you, could you, Otamega?"

Chihiro laughed internally. It had been a long time since she'd used that nickname.

"So what about you? Are you studying or working?" he gestured at the blouse and knee-length skirt she was wearing, "Looks more like working…"

She laughed.

"Studying… Bachelors of Commerce, actually…"

"What, you're going to sit in a stuffy office all day?"

"Eh, I had no better ideas, and my marks were decent enough for it, so why not?"

Keima looked at his watch.

"I didn't ask, but when is your stop?"

"Oh… the next one… in about 20 minutes…" Chihiro replied distractedly…

Not that she'd admit it to him, but twenty minutes really didn't seem like anything at all. Just even thinking about it made her miss him already.

"Right…" he replied quietly, "I guess I should talk about the elephant in the room, huh?"

"Yeah…" Chihiro replied in the same subdued tone, "but that girl keeps trying to listen in as well…"

"No I'm not!" came a loud scream a few feet away. Both of them looked at the pint-sized interruption and laughed.

"You know what… I'll tell you the story of the elephant… you should probably sit down for this." Chihiro looked around, but it was an improbability, considering the seating was very close to the door.

"I can't really… I'll just stand…"

"To-chan!" the little girl loudly interrupted, despite her conversation being directed to the middle-aged man in the next seat from both Keimai and her, "can we swap seats?"

"But Erika, don't you want to sit next to To-chan and Ka-chan?"

"Nooooooo! I want to hear the story of the elephants!" Both Chihiro and Keima rolled their eyes at that… The girl was really making no effort to disguise her eavesdropping.

It was an inevitability that the girl would win, so they waited the two minutes till she was seated. However, what neither of them expected was for Erika to stand up.

"You should sit down, Nee-san…" Chihiro was touched, but obviously hesitant to take a seat from a four year old girl.

"But then where will you sit?" the girl smiled mischievously.

"I have an idea… now please sit…"

So she did it… then, Erika jumped on her lap. Erika's father gave a grunt of protest, but Chihiro motioned that it was alright.

"Now, please continue, Nii-san…" the pint-size girl, who Chihiro was just itching to hug, made herself comfortable on the latter's lap. Keima sent Chihiro a look.

"Yes, please continue, Kami-nii-sama…" Keima rolled his eyes at the nickname.

"Well… basically, there was a boy elephant named Kei, who was strong and smart, but had no friends… he had a Fairy God Mother, who would give him great things when he gave her these magic beans. You see, in this world, magic beans are amazingly powerful…"

"So he must have found lots of magic beans…"

"He did! Kei was the best-spoken elephant in the world… It was useful, because these beans were given to different girl elephants throughout the country, so if he could convince every elephant to give their bean to him, he could collect as many beans as he wanted, and he would get as many great things as he collected the beans…"

Erika jumped excitedly in Chihiro's lap at the thought of magic beans and elephants, but the latter was more conflicted… were the' beans' the Goddesses that Katsuragi had spent the night chasing after? And other than Katsuragi being the protagonist, who were the rest of this elephant cast? And Erika's hair is damn tickly!

"Kei was very happy with his many great things, until one day, his Fairy God Mother told him that the world was going to end…"

"Nooo!" Erika squirmed, now frightened.

"Yes… If Kei ever wanted his ordinary life with his great things, he'd have to fight the bad guys who were trying to kill all the Elephants… And do you know what he needed!?"

"Magic beans!"

"Exactly! They were these special kind of magic beans… they were so rare that only six of those beans exist…"

"Ooooooohhh! Did Kei find them and win?"

"Well… Kei did find them eventually… it was just very difficult for him…"

"So where were they?" both Chihiro and Erika asked simultaneously…

"You see… The new kind of magic beans were special, because they always made friends with the other magic beans… In fact, the new magic beans were with the same girl elephants that had them before…"

"All of them?" Erika cocked her head, which sent her pigtails straight across Chihiro's face.

"Not all… there were only six new magic beans, so only six of the girl elephants could have them…"

"So what happened to the other girl elephants that had only one magic bean?"

"Simple… Kei didn't become friends with them… The magic beans made the elephants want to be friends with Kei, so without that, they couldn't be…" a sad look appeared on Keima's face, which only piqued Chihiro's interest… The climax was coming.

"You see… Kei discovered that the beans… the new beans, I mean… were given to elephants that he was really close to. Kei obviously knew which elephants he was close friends with, so he found the first five beans easily…"

"Wha-what about the last bean?"

"It gave Kei a lot of trouble, because Kei had two girl best friends… both of them had given him a magic bean in the first place, but only one of them could have the new magic bean… and Kei learnt a valuable lesson from that…"

"What was it?" Chihiro could feel her chest clench…

"Just because it's the easier route doesn't make it right…" he sighed.

"Did he choose the wrong elephant to ask?"

"Yes… girl elephants don't like it if you ask for magic beans, especially if they don't have any…"

"Why did he ask her then?" Chihiro asked pointedly. Finally, by this point, the story was starting to sound a bit familiar…

"Because…" Keima leant forward so he could watch his sneakers, "Kei… he just wished that his best friend would have the bean… "

For a moment, neither adults could say anything, with their own head dredging in memories… Keima got a grip first, once Erika started poking him to continue…

"You see… Kei held a 'best friend' ceremony with the girl elephant, hoping that she would give him the magic bean… when he discovered that she wasn't controlled by the magic bean to become close to him, he knew that saving the world was more important… That is why he told her he didn't want to be friends…"

"No…" Erika started tearing up, mimicking the same feeling that slowly stabbing into Chihiro's heart, "No! Why did he do that!?"

"Well… Kei had to save the world… He had never had friends before, and he didn't need them now… in the end, he went to find the other girl elephant and finally get the magic bean from her…"

"Ke-kei is the worst!" Erika punched her thighs angrily, while tears spilled down her cheeks, "Why couldn't Kei see that the first girl elephant was his one real friend…"

"Kei was the worst… that's why he didn't deserve that friend… instead, he found the last bean and saved the world, so he could get back to his great things… Now that he had it, he just wasn't happy… For all time he had been making friends… now that he'd lost them all, he just couldn't be happy…"

Erika sniffled.

"Did Kei make up with his friends?" Keima shook his head sadly.

"No… he moved to a new country, but after the pain he had inflicted on his friends before, he decided to never make friends again…"

By this point, both of Erika's parents were listening into the story. As adults themselves, they could pretty much tell it wasn't a story…

"Erika… it's just a story, so you don't have to cry… let's go wash your face…" Erika's mother lifted the crying child off to the toilet, and the father obediently followed. Once the three of them were out of earshot, Chihiro spoke up.

"So is that what happened?" a poker-faced Chihiro asked quietly.

"Yeah… Keima discovered too late what Chihiro meant to him, and by that point, the bonds between them were so broken that they were impossible to fix, so he just left them…"

"You… are in idiot, you know!?" Chihiro had her own hands in fists, "why didn't you tell me about that whole 'new jelly bean' thing!?"

"It was a magical bean…" he said weakly, which only fuelled Chihiro's anger.

"I'll call it whatever I damn want!"

Also, she'd never admit that her anger sparked her appetite too.

"And even if you couldn't tell me about it, why couldn't you ask me to wait!? Or why didn't you break up with me any other way!?"

"Vintage was after me… I was trying to protect you!"

"Protect me!?" Chihiro stood up, the first of her angry tears brimming in her eyes, "You f#$%#* broke me!"

The carriage fell completely silent, but politeness was not something Chihiro was aiming for today. She calmed down enough that she wasn't screaming anymore.

"You know, it's been four years since then, and I have yet to have any kind of meaningful relationship, because I'm too scared that it'll hurt me again…"

"I'm sorry! At the time, it felt like the best solution…"

"You know what… maybe it was for the best…"

 **"The doors will now be opening on the right… please be careful…"**

Chihiro sighed, the tears rolled down as she blinked.

"You know what… thanks, Otamega! I'm glad I took my pick back…"

And before he could say anything, she stepped out of his life once again. Keima was too mad to care though…

Who the hell did she think she was!? That breakup hurt him equally as hard. He acknowledged it had been a bad choice as well. Couldn't she just accept his apology and they'd start over?

"Whe-where did Nee-san go?" Erika came running up to him.

"She left already…" he replied grumpily, pulling out his PFP from his bag.

"Why aren't you following her!?"

"The same reason I didn't follow her last time…" Besides, he was getting off in about two stations. Why would he follow that unreasonable woman? She may have gotten more mature looking from high school, but she was still annoying and unpredictable.

"You know… do you know how old I am?" Erika asked… When Keima shook his head, she held up four fingers.

"And do you know when my birthday is?" he shook his head again…

"The fifth of November…" Keima's eyes widened… he remembered that date.

"So you remember that is the day that Kei told Chi, the girl elephant, that he didn't want to be friends with her?"

"Ye-yeah… but how do you know that?"

"I just do… besides, girls are smarter than boys, which is why they always win…"

* * *

Outside, Chihiro was having second thoughts about running away… true, it was her stop and she hadn't forgotten anything… just, there was no way it should end like this…

After that date, Chihiro had promised she'd never let anyone break her heart, and the irony was is that someone did… and it was the same person as before…

It was her…

Last time made sense… she was seventeen, and in love for the first time… she didn't want him to see her break down from within…

But this time… they weren't even dating… she wasn't even in love with him…

No… she wasn't… He should have just acknowledged it was his mistake and apologized for what it had done to her…

Still, she was running back to the station, where the train was leaving…

"Take some responsibility, damn you!" she screamed at the train, before she toppled down to her knees, "Damn you!"

And for once, she wasn't sure who she was cursing at… herself or him…

A half-full bottle appeared in her vision, dangling in front of her face. Her puffy eyes drifted to the side, where Keima was waiting.

"I will…" he promised, "take responsibility, I mean…"

She stood up and snatched the bottle, seeing that it was hers, and washed down her parched throat…

"Don't scare me like that, you jerk! You could've waiting in sight…"

"I know I could have… I was wondering if you'd come back…" Chihiro closed the bottle angrily.

"I did come… I wanted my bottle back…" She wanted to walk of angrily, but the jerk had grown two inches since school and was easily keeping in step…

"You're not honest at all, huh, Chihiro," he held an arm out to get her to stop. Chihiro admitted defeat on that, her eyes dripping frustrated tears.

"You just make it difficult!"

"You're in luck then… I've known from the start that you were difficult, and that makes it all the more interesting…"

"So what, you going to confess or something!?"

"Nope!" he smiled, despite his words, "we both have a bit more growing up to do, so that can wait… however, this will suffice for now…"

And he stole the bottle back from her, taking a good swig, while Chihiro's face climbed up a few shades on the redness scale.

* * *

 **Romantic... pretty much...**

 **In character... I hope so...**

 **Fluff... no way in Hell!**

 **What the hell... when I started this, it was going to be fluff... Apparently everything with Chihiro has to be deep and kind of depressing...**

 **I dunno... this chapter both reminds me how much I like the pairing and how much I worry of it working... both of them are pride-filled (though Keima moreso) and suck with being honest (though Chihiro moreso) Not to say either of them are unsuited, but I see a lot of headbutting, both or love and of wanting to kill each other...**

 **Well, in any case, I hope the payout was worth it... the part with the water bottle was gold.**

 **Read and review please... man, has it been long since I've said that.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Honestly, I was planning to have this as a one shot, but the reviews seriously inspired me, and inspiration kept pushing me this way, so what the hey... multi chapter story this is.**

 **Basically, it will be a variety of meetings... some talks of the past and some of the future... and of course, they will end up together... it may take some time though, just because it's them...**

 **So enjoy.**

* * *

"Didn't you miss your stop?" Chihiro asked. Considering Keima had jumped of the train to catch up with her… hopefully, it wouldn't be problematic.

"Yeah, but it's alright. It wasn't anything big…"

"Right…"

Silence fell on the two adults… well barely!

Chihiro was twiddling her thumb under the table, and Keima was still itching to play _Scalpels and Hearts_ , his most recent, medical-centred gal game. He resisted though… he wasn't really succeeding at making a good impression to her, considering she already blew up at the mention of the thing at the Mai High Festival, even from his point of view.

"Your drinks are here…" the waitress put the black coffee in front of Keima, and a milk coffee in front of Chihiro.

"Thank you…" Chihiro mumbled. The waitress half-bowed and walked away.

What to talk about, what to talk about… Chihiro noticed Keima taking a sip before making a face.

Oh yeah, he made the coffee at the 2-B's café during the festival… that could work as conversation.

"Not as good as yours at home?" Keima glanced up, surprised she still remembered that, she was still staring at the table, so she didn't notice, "well, it is a café at a train station… it makes sense it sucks."

"How did you know my coffee was good?"

"Didn't you make the coffee at our café during the festival?"

"Oh… Did you try it then?" Chihiro blushed, still avoiding his eyes.

"Yeah… Miyako kept raving on about it, so I tried a sip…"

And then drank another two paper cups, all while cursing herself for drinking that Bastard's homemade coffee. Of course, he didn't need to know that.

"Did you like it?"

Yes… yes… yes, dammit! It was the nectar of the Gods!

"It was fine…"

Yeah, that time was pretty difficult for her… and then, at night she couldn't even go home to wallow, for various reasons. She had been so tired when the 2B Pencils were performing.

"Did you like it?" she asked softly.

"Like what? The coffee?"

"The song our band sang…"

Keima honestly had hoped she would never have to answer that… at the time, he wasn't doing a particularly good job at keeping himself together.

Honestly, she had been amazing then… The Goddess Hosts and Elsie had come late, cutting her band in half, yet she still casually greeted the crowd, explaining the situation is that upbeat tone she always had. She was definitely scared, but her pick gave her the courage to continue… the pick that she'd taken back from him.

Keima understood symbolism pretty well, so he knew that it was the end… when he conquered the loose spirit in her heart, courage and confident was the last word he'd use for her. Now, she didn't need him anymore… he didn't deserve her anymore.

He escaped from the crowd pretty soon after it began, but the lyrics rang loud and clear to him… of how her quiet days changed when she fell in love, but that feeling can only remain for a moment… Her voice didn't have the same strength or perfectness that Kanon's did. But it pierced him… she was ready to move on, and so must he…

Yeah, it was a weird mix of guilt and sadness that left him crying on the roof, where the last shreds of her voice reached him. He had messed up badly with her… There was no way she'd ever forgive him. In fact, none of the girls would… Even if it was to save the world, he had caused a lot of irreparable damage.

In the end, that face haunted him, as he tried to fix everything his brain by playing and replaying every classic gal game that he had revered over the years, but the wounds clearly weren't there.

In the end, once he'd come back from the past, he truly wanted to make amends with all of the girls, but the Goddess Hosts were still pissed, especially after they learned that they were all in love with the same guy.

Maybe it was a coward's move to beg his mother to transfer him out, but he wanted to leave long enough that they would fall out of love with him, and when that happened, he could become proper friends with them, just as he wished they could be.

"Hello…" Chihiro was waving, "is anyone in there?" Keima snapped out of his daydream.

"Chihiro!?"

"Thanks for remembering my name," she replied drily, "so are you going to answer my question?"

Keima didn't reply. Considering he saw her face so much in his dreams, it was such a relief to see it in real life… Her hair was noticeably longer, and her aura was of a more mature woman, but those eyes were the same… small and narrow, but still sparkling. And she still glared at him the same way she did during high school.

"You're being creepy, Katsuragi…" she remarked, looking back at her coffee, "stop staring at me, please…"

"S-sorry," he took a sip of his coffee to save face. Too bad it still tasted like mud water.

Yeah… it was a good thing he hadn't let her run off once she'd left the train. He would have regretted it.

It was weird… things had definitely been weird since the eve of the festival, but since her creepiness comment, it felt more like when she'd make snide comments from her chair two seats from his. Not weird at all… She did miss him. He was trying to get along with her too, and that was definitely more than what he used to do before…

Forgive and Forget… after she'd learned of what he did, she did forgive him… now was probably the time to forget.

"If you want…" Chihiro risked looking up, where Keima was stirring his black coffee, "we can forget about what happened at the Festival… just go back to when we were acquaintances in class…"

Keima was shocked. If she was actually willing to ignore that time, maybe there was hope for them getting along… Like hell he'd let himself off that easily.

"No," he said firmly, pulling his eyes off his spoon, "if I'm going to do this, I'll do this right."

Chihiro smiled… trust him to be pedantic about something like that.

"Also, whenever something bad happens, I know you'll remember that…"

Chihiro's smile contorted into a smirk. That sounded like something she'd do.

"Fair point…" Keima's reminder set off. His train was nearly here.

"Chihiro, would you mind if I sent you an email once in a while?" Chihiro nodded.

"I'll get your number from Elsie then," he tossed some change on the table for both of their coffees, "Thanks for this…"

He then ran off to the train.

"We're ready to pay!" she flagged the waitress, who rushed in. She quickly gathered her coat and bag and ran out to the train. Seeing as the train was still there, she took a paper and quickly wrote her email and phone number on it and crumpled it up.

"Katsuragi!" She yelled. She must have done a pretty good job, because his annoyed face appeared out of a window, "put your hands out…"

He complied.

With all her strength, she threw the paper ball at him, where it kept slipping in his hands, till he got a grip after four stumbles.

"Just get them from me instead of your sister, you damn stalker!" He laughed.

"You're not supposed to scream here, you know… Learn some politeness!" She laughed, not offended either.

"Learn to catch then, you huge nerd!"

His face disappeared for a second for a moment resurfacing with a small card. By then, the train was moving, so she rushed forward to catch it, though Katsuragi flicked it before she was close enough to catch.

"I don't want to hear it from you…" She stuck out her tongue, but he ignored it.

She picked up scrap of paper from the floor, which was his business card.

Chihiro snorted at his title... _God of Conquests_.

That must be it, huh? After those four years of no contact, they could still be friends… If anything, Chihiro's smile got even bigger.

Yep, she'd never fall in love with him again… though she didn't mind being his friend… That was what she wanted in high school, anyway.

* * *

 **Basically, if you can get on board with this, stick around... The rest of the story will play out in this thread.**

 **x-MidnightReader-x: Well, this chapter answers the first part of your review, and yes; there's way too few Keichi fanfiction. I'm also glad that I made your day. On that note, reviews make my day, so I guess you reap what you sow. Thanks for that.**

 **Shawn Raven: Chihiro... annoying and unpredictable... Never!? Nah, she's a girl. What can be said? In any case, I hope this chapter put her in a bit of a better light for you. Considering Keima has a business card, he has matured, save the Chuunibyuu name. Ah well, some stuff don't change.**

 **I kind of disagree with only one of them being hurt. Of course, I'll end up elaborating in later chapters though... along with the kiss and make up stuff.**

 **Also, I dig that "the fourth wall can't protect you" thing you had going on the end...**

 **And to the Guest reviewer: Honestly, I hadn't realized I had written a fix fic till you pointed it out. Even still, that's cool.**

 **Thanks. Reviews motivate me loads. I hope you continue to do so.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone... I'm back again, and after half studying and half writing all day, I finally wrote this chapter.**

 **Yeah, it was my birthday last week, so I got this super rocking Bluetooth keyboard. Now that I'm finally used to it, I type anywhere and everywhere, coz my phablet has now upgraded to Phlaptop... Geddit? Lol... that was a bad joke.**

 **In any case, I would have updated this sooner had it not been for some tests and my mind insisting that my OC be well thought out. Ah well.**

 **In any case, this chapter introduces what I am hoping is my only OC... Technically, she was created by Tamiki Wikaki-Sensei during TWGOK's run, but nothing was ever done with her.**

 **In any case, I'll explain it properly at the bottom Author's note... Enjoy**

* * *

Chihiro sighed before laying her head on the desk... damn, this lecture was boring. She pulled out her phone from her pocket, considering trying Flappy Bird again...

Or maybe not... she still did like this phone... it was new too.

In any case, she dug out her headphones from her bag and plugged them in, so she could listen to some music. That would be better than than listening to her droning lecturer.

As she was skimming through her songs, she passed a nameless track which she couldn't remember, so she had to turn it on.

Her eyes closed when the rush of new, yet familiar notes burst into her ear... it had been the song she'd sung, once upon a time.

You see, this song had been really special for her. It was her first completed song, which she had performed at her first live, and it was about her first love... it was about him.

Of course, he said he'd been listening... so much for that... especially because she actually liked the song.

"Whatcha listening to?" a voice interrupted her. Chihiro glanced to her side, where her friend was looking over at her with curious brown eyes.

"Nothing really," Chihiro turned the screen away slightly, "just some old stuff..."

Her friend completely missed that cue, and took the earpiece that was hanging off the table and put it in her ear.

Chihiro sighed... she just didn't get her.

This girl, the one who missed social cues and would get into Chihiro's personal space a bit too much, was a new friend Chihiro had made in University. Her name was Kako Nonaka, and she was cute and shy and just plain difficult to understand... Her name was fitting, because like the past, you can only make sense of her after a couple of years of thought.

Oh, and she's got the singing voice of an angel... Chihiro felt a bit self-concious of her song after remembering that. With any luck, Kako wouldn't pick up that it was Chihiro singing.

"This is you singing, isn't it?" Kako remarked plainly, killing Chihiro's hope completely. She didn't even wait for a reply, "your voice wavers when you're holding a note... though someone else is singing as well... Kanon-chan? Her voice is much stronger than yours..."

Oh yes, this is why she never showed Kako this song... she's pretty tactless.

Chihiro only spoke once the mp3 had played through completely, and even till then, she was scratching at her nails. That critique had only been the start of it.

"So what do you think?"

"After class..." Kako whispered. Chihiro was relieved at the fifteen minute reprieve... She actually started taking notes during that time.

After class, Kako pulled both straps of her backpack over her shoulder and waiteed patiently at the end of their bench for Chihiro to leave.

"Was that actually Kanon Nakagawa?" she asked, her face nonchalant.

"Yeah... she wanted to sing with me."

"But why? You're just Chihiro..." Chihiro did feel a stab at that, but Kako was dead right... She was just Chihiro. Why would an awesome teen idol even want to sing with her... She really didn't understand what had happened that night... or that weekend, for that matter.

"Kanon-chan was in our class... we said we would meet on stage, but it would be more as rivals, than friends..."

Kako snorted.

"You... a rival of the most popular idol in the Narasawa area, and a rising star in Japan?!" she laughed properly... If it wasn't such a cute laugh, the tactlessness of that comment would have annoyed her a lot more. Chihiro was getting way too used to her.

Well, Chihiro wasn't exactly sure, but music wasn't the only thing they had in common... they also both liked a certain annoying Otaku in glasses... Wel, maybe... like she said... that whole week had been really odd.

During the last mid-term test, Kanon jumped on said Otaku, Keima Katsuragi, whispering something... then, while they were still supposed to be writing, he grabs her by the wrong hand and walks her out, so they can talk outside. She didn't hear much, but the confession at the end was something everyone heard. Before he could even give her an answer, she jumped away and high-tailed it. Needless to say, they didn't come back till the next day, and by then, Keima was the pariah of the school, because he was going out with everyone's pure and beloved Kanon-chan.

Chihiro had been pretty mad then... at herself for being so affected by the news, and at him for actually going out with Kanon-chan... He's an Otaku, dammit! He should go out with someone more suited for him... like Chihiro...

That whole week, save for a few snatches on conversations that the two of them had, Keima was pretty hard to find. Chihiro had to prepare with her band anyway, so she didn't make too much of that.

Besides, she had a plan... maybe, just maybe... she would tell him how she felt during the Campfire on the Festival's eve... it was rumoured to be a good time for couples, and she really could use that luck... She was scared out of her mind, but recently, he had been awfully receptive... He'd hinted that the Kanon thing in class had been a misunderstanding... they'd even bumped into each other in the music store at Inazumart, where he admitted that her music sounded nice... Chihiro was definitely getting a good feeling about that.

Of course, the thing that convinced her was when she came to his house under the guise that she was dropping something off for Elsie, Keima's little sister... Keima, who usually acted a bit off, was actually really sweet... acknowledging their somewhat odd friendship by making fun of how she was taking care of him and complimenting her completed song. Needless to say, Chihiro was certain... she wanted to be with him... It was fun... their odd friendship of name calling and peashooting, but she wanted more... she wanted him to like her back... he already liked her music, so it was only a matter of time.

"I like you," she spoke through his bedroom door. The reality of what she'd done only settled in then, but she didn't regret it. With her heart beating all over the place, she stuttered out her invitation... too bad he'd fallen asleep for that, and she didn't have the nerve to say it again.

Of course, four years into the story, she knew how that ended... she asked him face-to-face the next day, they went on the date and he brutally rejected her... then the next day, despite him saying they weren't going to talk anymore, she was once again, dragged against her better judgement into accompanying him on whatever mission he was on. They said their goodbyes once it was all done, she sang her song with her bandmates, then everything was done.

"You know..." Kako waved her hand in Chihiro's face, "you literally have just been sitting with a dazed look on your face for all that time."

"Have I?" Chihiro turned to look at her friend, who was, once again, way too close to her face. Chihiro pulled back.

"Sorry... I was thinking about something," Chihiro apologized, scratching the back of her shoulder length hair.

"About your song, right?" Kako nodded empathetically, despite Chihiro not replying to that, "all songs have stories, even if the listener's don't know it."

"Is that so?" Chihiro mumbled, putting her head on the desk, "even your songs?"

"Yeah... like in Hikari no Kiseki, it had been Summer, and all the seagulls were gathering at the beach, where me and an Wataru-kun were playing on the pier, kicking up the waves and enjoying the sun..."

"That sounds nice..."

"It was... it was very yellow," Kako nodded, as if it made perfect sense to her. Well, probably to her, it did make sense.

"You know, colours and emotions aren't the same thing," Chihiro said in a matter-of-fact tone. Kako shook her head.

"Actually, colours do have emotions connected to them... Besides, songs have colours in them too..."

"Sure they do..." Chihiro replied, dead-pan. Kako didn't pick up the disbelief.

"Indeed... all songs can be linked to a colour and a time..." Chihiro smirked, pulling out her phone.

"If you seriously think so, shall we play a game?" Kako's eyes narrowed a bit, "why don't you tell me what colour and time all these songs are?"

"Okay, we can do that till class starts..."

Chihiro brought out her playlist with all of Kanon's songs. First song that came up was Romantic Aijou, one of Kanon's more recent songs. Kako just had to listen to the introduction.

"Deep purple... It's a night song... so maybe at 8pm in Fall..." Chihiro whistled, a little impressed. Kako knew what she was talking about.

Maybe she couldn't put it like that, but that song did have a more mature feel to it... like something you'd play at a club.

"How about this one?" she switched to the next one, "Hitomi kara Snow."

"It's going to be white and snowy..." then it started playing... It took Kako till the chorus to decide, "it's sadder than I expected... more like the dull slushy snow just before Spring begins... and at midnight..."

Chihiro was definitely impressed. Her answers weren't very vague... In fact, she was a bit curious to get her own song in those terms... She opened that unnamed file again.

"What about this one?" she hoped she would like the answer...

To her annoyance, Kako ended up listening to the whole song fully, unlike the previous two times...

"This song is confusing!" Kako complained, breaking from her semi-stoic way of speaking, "there's too many feelings behind it..."

"What does that even mean?" Chihiro asked, her heart sinking.

" I can tell that it's a 9pm song during Fall or Winter... just, the colours are like fireworks... sometimes rainbow, and sometime light blues or reds... and this instrumental part doesn't even have fireworks at all... It just sounds like you're chasing someone on the festival road..."

"Chasing..." Chihiro mumbled, but she knew full well who it was... "do I catch them?"

"No... the next verse feels like you've stopped running and just accepting that you've lost them..."

Chihiro gulped... if it was emotions Kako was capturing, just from the words, she was a genius... Her words hit really close to home...

"Well, I may be wrong, but I think the words meant something... It's almost like a lit candle, illuminating a dark world in its own small and clumsy way..."

Chihiro nodded, before it actually occured to her that Kako totally insulted her song... By attachment, Kako totally insulted her too... The latter, however, didn't seem to care at all... She just flipped back her open hair and smiled at Chihiro.

"So what is the story behind this song... other than that Kanon Nakagawa sang with you?"

"It wasn't much," Chihiro lied, "it was just the first song I wrote..."

"Alright then..." Kako leaned down, pulling out her statistics book, "I'm just going to say one more thing then..."

"What..."

"The guy you were chasing... you shouldn't give up on him yet..."

"Why?"

"That rollercoaster of a song... that kind of love you sang about there... You're probably never going to find it again..." and with a slight, knowing smile, Kako pulled out her Z-table and started working before the Lecturer started talking.

"Duly noted..." Chihiro smiled.

True, Chihiro didn't believe that herself. She'd grown out of that love story quite long ago, but her thoughts did remind her that she still understood nothing about that time... She had Keima's number, so maybe it was about time she went back to the past too...

* * *

 **Hey again... there you have it... No Keima conversations today, but I swear there will be next time.**

 **In any case, meet Kako Nonaka... She was actually created by Tamiki Wikaki-Sensei as part of the Eyelis Pre-production Albut, where Eyelis's vocalist (most of the time, anyway) covered some TWGOK songs, like Koi no Shirushi, Love Call and Happy End... Also, Eyelis performed both ending theme songs from the Tenri-hen OVAs...**

 **I actually really like the name she was given. Kako Nonaka actually means 'in the past', so it kind of helps in this story about memories... As for why I wanted to use her character... Why the hell not!? Eyelis is friggin' awesome!**

 **In any case, I would definitely suggest checking out Eyelis' albums... My personal favourite song was Mirai no Tobira from the second Tenri OVA. However, after two years of not releasing any new songs, she sang last season's Akagami to Shirayuki-hime's ending, which was also brilliant. Right now, my favourite song has to be 'Boku wa Ima' from that new album.**

 **Well, personal advertising of my favourite stuff is done now. Thank you so much for everyone who's reading this, and special thank yous to all who reviewed. They always make me feel super happy.**

 **Ja ne... Don't worry... I'm still updating TFPD. Those chapters are just way longer than these ones.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone... I am back after a surprisingly little amount of time... You can thank inspiration, which comes from all the people who review, follow and favourite my story, and of course, my brain, which despite TWGOK being over for 18 months, still continues to obsess over Keichi (that's the couple name I subscribe to, just coz it can be shortened to K1).**

 **In any case, here you go... There is more Keima in this chapter, obviously.**

 **So enjoy...**

* * *

Chihiro sighed, watching her unlocked phone hesitantly. In the phone, her call menu was open, and a number was typed in. Chihiro just couldn't bring herself to call it.

Who thought calling Katsuragi would be so hard… C'mon! She was 21 already… this shouldn't be so hard!

Now, on the floor of her apartment, the inside of her brain was screaming as if she was 12… What the hell was wrong with her!?

She quickly grabbed a paper pad from the table in front of her, hoping to organise her brain a bit. She still had no clue what she'd say to him… or what she actually wanted to know… Or what Eri had been doing…

Chihiro snapped up. That was a perfect excuse to call! Maybe she could go visit Eri, and Katsuragi could come along… that made her feel a little better, even though she wasn't sure why… she had no reason to feel nervous around him. He was just an old friend… Stupid Kako was putting weird ideas in her head.

"Old friend…" she repeated a couple of times, while taking deep breaths. Then, with the little courage she had in her body, she pressed the call button…

Ring… ring…

Come to think of it, had Chihiro ever even called Katsuragi personally before? He sometimes answered Eri's phone, but that was it.

Aaah! That wasn't helping!

The phone clicked when he answered, nearly causing the phone to slip onto the table in front of her.

"Hello?" the voice answered, somewhat formally.

"H-hi…" she got out, "how are you doing, Katsuragi?"

There was a bit of scuffling on the other side, which continued for a couple of seconds.

"Hey, are you still there?" she asked, wondering what that could be.

"Yeah, sorry…" he replied, "I was just saving my game…"

Chihiro felt herself loosen up a bit. Compared to how awkward some topics were, she was happy to hear about his games.

"Of course…" she smirked, "are you having fun there?"

"Yeah… they're good… I just figured I should be polite and pause it while you're calling."

Chihiro was a bit touched…

"That's… um… thoughtful… of you," she felt herself turn a bit hot, "do-don't worry though… I'll keep this brief, so you'll be back with your precious game soon enough."

"Alright… do you have anything specific to say?"

"Umm… yeah. Do you see Ellie a lot, nowadays?"

"Yeah… we're still living together… why do you ask?"

"I was thinking it would be fun if the three of us could get together and hang out for a bit…"

There was silence on the other side, which worried Chihiro a bit.

"Well, it's up to you, of course…"

"Do you want to talk about _that_?" his voice was solemn. Chihiro felt her heart quicken a bit.

"Yeah, if you don't mind… it would be easier in person."

"I don't mind… just, Eri doesn't know that you know a little about what happened. I'd prefer to talk about that at a different time…"

"Alright, point noted…" Chihiro replied cheerfully, trying to think of a joke. Katsuragi's serious tone just made her feel uneasy, "how about we just get together for old time's sake… get some cake or something…"

"That we can do… but Eri seriously has no clue what happened at the festival…"

What, did he forgot what she said to him at the station? Chihiro laughed.

"What happened at the festival?" she asked jokingly, before sobering up, "I told you… it doesn't really matter what happened at the Festival…"

"So you were serious before?"

Chihiro shrugged.

"Yeah… I won't mention it at all… If you want, I'll even bring a peashooter and throw scrunched up paper at you, like how I used to do in class…"

He laughed.

"Thanks… though I don't think you should let me off that easily…"

Chihiro felt irrationally angry at that. Was he expecting her to take revenge or something?

"It couldn't be helped, right?" she snapped.

"You sound pretty mad at it, considering it doesn't matter…"

Chihiro was about snap, but she took a deep breath. It wasn't really his fault.

"Look, I want to forget… but I also wish I actually understood what was happening…"

"Would you be able to forget it if you actually knew the story?" he asked, and it was a decent question… Chihiro had an answer for that.

"It's better than wondering about it at night…"

"I don't know… it is a pretty heavy story for someone who just got shoved into it one night…"

"It may be…" Chihiro replied stubbornly, "still, I don't think I can actually forget until I know what to forget… Now, it's just a whole bunch of questions sitting at the back of my head, buzzing like flies."

He exhaled so loud that even Chihiro could hear it.

"Fine… but then, can you tell me something?"

"What?" Chihiro braced herself.

"Tell me what you remember…" she breathed out, relieved.

"From the festival… Well, there was-"

"Not from then…"

"What time are you referring to, then?" Chihiro put her head down on the cold table.

"It probably isn't relevant to you, but during the rainy season in that year…"

Chihiro lifted her head up, confused… nothing happened then, right?

"I dunno… it was rainy… does it even matter?"

"Yeah, it does…" he sighed, "just think about it more and tell me if anything comes up…"

"Alright," she snorted, "I can barely remember what I had for breakfast today, though…" he exhaled sharply as well, from held-down laughter.

Chihiro lay down in that silent moment, so she was looking at the window, which had darkened during the time she'd been on the phone.

"I'm sure you want to go back to your game now," she pulled the phone back, so it would be easier to turn off.

"Actually, can you answer one more question?"

"Err… alright…"

"I'll ask it in person… just promise you'll tell the truth…"

"Is it a question you'd be willing to ask in front of Ellie?"

"Yeah… I guess so..."

"Alright, I'll answer..." she answered. If Eri could hear it, it probably couldn't be bad.

"Good... So you remember where our house is?"

"Yeah... so is this Saturday alright?"

"Yeah, Saturday is alright..." Chihiro grinned, before her face fell. She forgot something...

"Actually, can we do Sunday? I forgot I had plans with another friend then..."

"Weird... you're actually popular now..." Chihiro snorted... Popular was hardly the word. She just wanted to take Kako to DesneySea... Poor girl hadn't been to an amusement park her whole life.

"So can we do Sunday instead?"

"Sure... I can miss you for one day more..." Chihiro felt her face heat up, a mixure of embarrassment and anger. However, she wouldn't let that show in her voice. She just swallowed and continued cheerfully, ignoring that last sentence.

"I'm all amped for it... I'll bring my peashooter and some other stuff to annoy you..." he snickered.

"Maybe we should just meet at our Cafe... when you annoy me, I can just go to my room..."

"Spoil sport... well, whatever! I can have fun with Ellie while you nerd it up in your room..."

"Be my guest... So bye, then."

"Bye bye..." she chirped before cutting the call. She missed the groan from his side, at the unwelcome reminder...

Keima still didn't particularly like that phrase...

In any case, Keima needed to come up with a strategy... This Sunday meeting was crucial for getting her love points- not those- idiot! No, gaining her trust and friendship was more important... He was going to sort through this relationship properly, this time. Still, it didn't hurt to say a flirty thing here or there...

Girls like that, right?

He picked up his game, thanking the Gods that there were some easier relationships to play through...

"Nii-sama! Dinner is ready!"

Still, as much as Keima liked the thought of making up with Chihiro, he still couldn't help thinking of the other Goddess Hosts... They probably deserved apologies as much as Chihiro did.

But how could he even begin with that? Girls just had way too much in their head for Keima to understand... maybe he could ask Eri for help with that? Or Chihiro, after she understood more of the situation?

"Geez, Nii-sama!" the door in his darkened room opened, "your food is getting cold..."

"Doesn't matter..." Keima muttered, "I'll eat later..."

Yes, plans first, dinner later...

"Though Eri..." the door opened again, "do you know where the Goddess hosts are?"

Eri stuck her head in, curiously.

"I can find out for you... Though this is the first time you've asked about them... Can I ask why?"

"I figure it's about time I apologized to them... about the two-timing and randomly disappearing once I returned back..."

Yeah, even out of hindsight, Keima knew he had been a jerk... True, it was for a good cause, and he had been smart about it, but he had led too many girls along... They weren't games he could just put aside for whatever reason, and he definitely needed to apologize for that.

While he had been gone, despite the excessive games he played, it was the voices of the real girls which would echo in his head... of promises broken and empty confessions... of things he couldn't do for them...

"That's good, Nii-sama..." Eri's voice broke his thought process, "Because Tenri-san is here for dinner..."

* * *

 **Hohoho... and just when you thought the Goddesses didn't matter...**

 **To explain, I was not fond of how the Goddess hosts were blown off toward the end of the manga. That is why, in this story, he will apologize to all of them in person... So yay! The Goddess hosts will be back!**

 **So yes, compared to my other story, the cast will be significantly bigger. Still, because the camera will follow either Chihiro or Keima, they are still the main characters...**

 **In any case, I really want to thank everyone who reads my stories... Writing is a true joy, but writing stuff which people like is even better... So thanks... I've been loving the reviews.**

 **I didn't really address reviews from last chapter, so might as well. There's bound to be a lot, so skip it if you want:**

 **From Chapter 2:**

 **Guest: Oh... whoops! In any case, by definition, a Fix Fic is one that resolves plot points not adequately addressed in the source material, as well as fixes things the Author didn't like, so I don't take it back... Though Autocorrect does suck.**

 **You're right though... Chihiro has friend-zoned him, but that's because she's certain she doesn't like him... it seems like Keima is fairly certain, so it's more of an 'unrequited love switcheroo'**

 **Shaunobrow: lol at the name... I'm glad you enjoyed it... I will show everyone the awesomeness of K1! Too bad I can't even get my sister to ship it with me... *sighs***

 **Shawn Raven: Actually, you were right. This was going to be a one shot... Just... plot happened... My brain sucks!**

 **In any case, Keima actually wanted time to heal some wounds... After he met Chihiro again, he decided to move back and finally take responsibility himself... also, free electricity for God of Conquest mode... He won't complain.**

 **Still, winning over Chihiro won't be easy... as the trope goes: Absence makes the heart go yonder... or does it? ;)**

 **From Chapter 3:**

 **Shawn Raven: Hmm, I figued Kako wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I'm hoping that you'll warm up to her... She's a music-obsessed oddball... kinda like me.**

 **If you actually care, that 'reading music mood' is actually stuff I do. I just close my eyes and imagine... usually I pick up colours and times from those images.**

 **More odd is that I actually see the other 'Hajimete Koi wo Shita Kioku' from the OVA, as a Spring, after school song, in pinks and greens. It's cute, but doesn't punch me in the feels like the 2B Pencils with Kanon Nakagawa version.**

 **x-Midnight-Reader-x: I totally laughed at your review... Take it easy though! You don't want to get fat on all those snacks XD.**

 **You are right about the fan-comics... I don't think I've seen a single non-hentai one. Funnily enough, this addresses your review on Damn that Guy! The first chapter was actually a doujin which I drew in my programming class two years ago. However, if you do feel like drawing a doujin comic of this story, please be my guest. I would love to see something like that.**

 **Though some of the TWGOK doujins aren't too bad... I actually enjoyed the K1 one... When Keima told her to wait, i was like "Damn straight! Tamiki Wikaki should have done that!" I think I actually think Chihiro had mentioned that as an option in the first chapter of this story.**

 **Hikari no Kiseki was pretty nice too... As long as we can agree that Satomi Kawasaki sounds like an angel, we can get along... All her songs are awesome.**

 **Guest: Is this the same Guest from Chapter 2? Coz if it is, that means I'll have three regular reviewers for this story. That would be great.**

 **In any case, thanks for the compliment. I hope i won't disappoint you in the future.**

 **Thanks again to everyone who got here, despite the ramblings... I'll be back soon.**

 **Ja ne... i love the reviews, so please keep them coming.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Just my luck... two days of hectic fanfiction typing and I somehow managed to break the spacebar key on my week old bluetooth keyboard... The hell?**

 **In any case, I was still inspired, so I decided to use the PC and just type it out anyway. I hope you like...**

* * *

"Hi... Ka-san... Tenri..." Keima said awkwardly, as he entered the dining room. Mari Katsuragi scowled at her son.

"You should be ashamed of yourself... keeping Tenri waiting like this," she snapped. Keima had to appreciate the truth behind those words. He didn't reply, just walking to the table, where he took a seat opposite his childhood friend.

Now, Keima had many qualms about how the real world worked... like how Elsie, the god-knows-how-old-she-is demon, somehow qualified as his little sister, then actually overwrote the world so they could become siblings... or like how his childhood friend was an acquaintance from when he was in elementary school, yet still managed to become his closest confidante when things were becoming rough with the Goddesses... or how, despite their friendship, this was the first time they had sat in the same room in four years...

No... Keima knew he had no right to complain about that last one... that was truly his own doing.

"How have you been, Keima-kun?" the timid girl asked in a small voice.

"I-I've been alright," Keima replied, while his mother put a bowl of rice in front of him, "let's eat..."

The table fell into silence.

"It was so surprising," Eri interjected, "when Nii-sama said he wanted to move back home, last week..."

That little comment actually surprised Keima. It had only been one week since he walked into his room, half-elated at having seen met Chihiro again, and half-exhausted from her rapidly changing mood. It was nice seeing her again, and part of him actually wished he could make up with the other girls too.

He'd said in his letter that he wanted to walk alongside them... maybe meeting Chihiro again was Fate's way of saying that he should get his butt moving and make up with everyone he hurt, instead of wallowing and avoiding people. That night, he called his mother, his mind made up.

So he moved back to where it all started... his purpose was to make up with everyone, right? Then why was saying even a word to Tenri so hard for him. It wasn't like he'd hurt her or broken any promises.

Except he did reject her through a ten year old letter…

Who was he kidding? Even by game standards, that was a dick move! If Diana was still there, he was going to get his ass whipped. In any case, he had to say something to break the silence.

"How about you, Tenri," he placed down his chopsticks to stop them from breaking in his clenched fists, "You look... nice..."

And even Keima would admit she did. She'd grown out of her double pigtails and bows. The front of her hair was pulled back and braided into a single plait, which lay on the inky river of the open back part. It suited her.

"I've been well... I'm studying to be a teacher now..." Tenri replied, before taking a morsel of food, "like Do-chan..."

She sent a look at Keima which was a lot more pointed than anything Tenri would have sent four years ago.

"That's great…" Keima croaked, before grabbing his glass. He had not been expecting her to bring up his pseudo-little sister this early. The water did little to sooth him.

He glanced at his mother, the one person who had absolutely nothing to do with the Heaven and Hell situation. Clearly, Tenri did have something more to say about it… Keima cleared his throat.

"So, have you heard from Diana recently?" he asked casually, adjusting his chopsticks so he could look a bit busy.

"Yeah, this morning…" was the reply. That did not bode well for Keima. He glanced at his mother again.

"Is that the phone?" Mari asked, despite the clearly quiet room, "I'll go get that…" and faster than Keima could say 'Yotsuba Sugimoto', his mother was out of sight.

Mari Katsuragi wasn't a dumb woman. She'd known from the time Keima had near begged to be transferred to a different school that something had happened with his friends… The tense atmosphere in her living room pretty much confirmed it.

All three young adults watched the closing door.

"There wasn't a call, was there?" Eri asked, her head tilting to the side.

"No. there wasn't," Keima replied blankly, his hand reaching into his pocket out of habit for his PF Zoi. He'd left it in his room.

"That's nice of your mother…" Tenri remarked, taking another bite. Keima took a deep breath. This first step would be the most important.

Maybe he should save Diana the trouble of shoving his head down and go into Dogeza already.

"Look… Tenri…" he pulled his shaking hands from his trouser pockets and clutched his seat, abou-"

"It's nice to see you again, Keima-kun…" Tenri interrupted. Keima's downturned eyes snapped up.

"It's… nice… seeing you too…" his eyes darted from her sweet smile to her eyes that looked like they meant it. Tenri didn't seem mad...

"Is Diana still with you?" he held his gaze, waiting for Tenri's blue eyes to sharpen and turn red.

"She is…" Tenri replied, "but I asked her not to come out right now…"

Keima was touched. Even after all that time… even though she had no reason to do it… Tenri would still look out for him. At this time, the least he could do is apologize and explain himself better… and in person.

"Tenri," he said briskly, "I'm sorry…"

"It's alright, Kei-"

"It isn't alright, Tenri!" He interrupted, slamming his fist on the table, "What I did… was cowardly… and selfish… and thoughtless… and just plain wrong!"

Tenri watched him, a gentle smile on her face. Keima just couldn't understand how she could still smile at him, despite what he had done.

"Someone like you deserves better than that!"

"Someone like me?"

"You're kind, thoughtful, and caring… how is it alright that I…" Keima gnashed his teeth, his throat closing up. His eyes prickled.

How could he even begin to repay her after all that she had done for him.

Eri was flailing in her seat, watching her brother struggling with his words, trying not to look at Tenri. Tenri herself, watched Keima with a worried look. Her hand kept extending then pulling back, like she wasn't certain of whether to console him or not.

"Keima-kun…" Tenri said softly, easing her hand on the table.

"No…" Keima pushed his head up, "I need to do something for you… anything…"

Keima groaned… Tenri barely had any desires before… would she even let him do anything to make up for it?

"I do have something to ask…" Tenri murmured, surprising Keima.

"What is it?" Keima asked, fully prepared to answer, or do, whatever she asked.

Tenri blushed, her fingers twiddling.

"Did… you ask out that girl? The one in your letter…"

Keima's mind churned… What could Tenri be getting at? It was a simple question to answer, but answering it would hardly make up for anything…

Well, he had prepared himself to tell the truth.

"I didn't…" Tenri looked up shyly.

"Then… did you find someone else?"

Keima did not like where this was going, but he still told the truth.

"I haven't…"

"Then please go out with me…"

The slight fidgeting from Eri stopped, causing the room to fall into silence.

"Wh-what?" Keima stumbled. Even though his mental processes thought the conversation was moving in this direction, it still shocked him greatly.

Tenri's eyes were still as rounded and blue as ever, and were staring determinedly at Keima's smaller brown ones.

"If you want to make it up to me, at least give me a chance…" she replied, her voice and eyes still holding strong.

Keima half smiled. Despite the quiet appearance, Tenri wasn't as timid as she had been all those years back.

He nodded. Tenri's face turned red.

"I-it only ha-has to be o-o-once…" she stutter, her eyes darting all over the table, "a-a-and only when you want to…"

"It's alright, Tenri…" Keima laughed lightly, "I agreed, didn't I?"

"Yeah…" she breathed.

It took Tenri a couple of deep breaths to calm down. Keima was a tad more amused at that then he should be, but it actually felt a bit nostalgic… like when she'd passed out when Keima had kissed her during her conquest. It was a little bit endearing.

Keima looked up, where Tenri was trying to say something.

"Sorry, can you repeat that?" Keima asked, making sure to pay proper attention.

"When should we meet?" she asked breathlessly, "this weekend, maybe?"

"Sure… it's a date…"

And those few words from Keima's mouth sent her into another round of quiet hysterics. She quickly stood up.

"Uh… I should go then…" she muttered, grabbing her purse from the floor before hurrying to the door.

"Bye, Tenri-san…" Eri called behind her. As soon as the dining room door closed behind her, the Demon-turned-human turned to Keima, who was smiling giddily.

"Nii-sama…" Eri cried. Keima looked at her with that creepy smile… Well, it was creepy because it was on his face. Eri rushed over to Keima and shook his shoulders.

"Nii-sama, what is happening to youuuu!?"

It took Keima a few seconds to snap out of it. When Eri could see that her work was done, she sat in the chair next to him, facing him.

"Why are you so happy, Nii-sama?"

Yes… why did Keima feel so happy about that? Did he actually want to go on this date with Tenri? Well, she had asked… so…

"She still likes me…" he muttered.

But… this is the first time she had set up any flag on her own… Keima actually felt pretty damn proud of her…

"But do you like her, Nii-sama?" Eri asked. It was a good question…

While he felt a rush of admiration and affection to the girl whom he definitely could consider a friend… going on a date with her… was that alright?

What if he hurt her again?

He still couldn't forgive himself about that last stint… was he setting himself on the part of redemption, or was it just the road downhill…

Why was his heart beating like that? And why did his palms feel so sweaty? It was just one date… they could talk… he could apologize again… they could catch up about what had been happening… he could talk to Diana again…

Still, his last date consisted of him having to break the heart of some girl who didn't deserve it… Was this just going to be a repeat of that? It would be even worse, actually...

But… at that time, he had been on a schedule, trying to save the world. This time, the world was fine, Satyr was nowhere to be seen and he could be himself. Not to say that Chihiro didn't appreciate his game playing self, but Tenri was different.

"I think…" Keima said, rubbing his rough chin, "I may have gotten myself into something big…"

"Yes… if he screwed this up, there was no saving this friendship… if he did this right… well, he had no clue what he'd find there.

Keima stood up. It was time to strategize this date.

"Answer the question, Nii-sama!" Eri called, but her brother was long gone.

* * *

 **Alright... either next chapter will go really well or really badly... Now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if you all hate me right now.**

 **In any case, lemme get to the review answering:**

 **xellos540: Yeah, this is pretty much AU. I'd actually thought up the original concept before the Heart of Jupiter Arc had finished. I only started writing it now, so basically, the HoJ arc happened, but when Keima came back, he decided to start the healing process early by making himself scarce.**

 **The Tenri cliffhanger was evil, huh? I don't know, but this chapter may be more evil.**

 **Thanks for the advice on the rereading and dialogue and that Saturday error. I tried a bit harder this time to make it flow better, so hopefully, you won't have problems with this chapter.**

 **Guest: I knew it! You're writing style seemed the same in both messages. In any case, I am having so much fun with this story... I wonder when the exhaustion and frustration will hit.**

 **Shawn Raven: So I ended up stalking your profile after I read this review... You're Indian, huh? So am I!**

 **Though on the topic of awkwardness and smoothness, I think this entire story will have shades of that... Especially next chapter, because that's when the date is going to be.**

 **Bae: Me likey this review...**

 **In any case, things are going pretty well with Tenri... I wonder if that will continue into the next chapter, which is going to cover Saturday...**

 **What's the chances I can finish it by Saturday?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey all... I am back!**

 **And indeed, as I write this at 10:15 pm on Saturday my time, I made it...**

 **So, to explain it, this chapter covers Saturday... At first, I wanted to do it in a kind of 4koma writing style, but I forgot how much content I had... not to mention, this chapter covered way too much serious content for it to be conducive... so here you go... The morning is told like 4komas, till later on.**

 **Also, to add on, this does cover two storylines in different times and places, so I hope you can follow.**

 **Enjoy...**

* * *

 **Chihiro Part 1: Get your own damn milk!**

Chihiro woke up on Saturday, all amped for her trip to the amusement park.

"I should probably call Kako and see if she's up…" she mused, picking up her smart phone.

Before she could get dialling, her doorbell rang and she opened up, revealing her somewhat attractive neighbour.

Chihiro slammed the door shut… She was not in the mood for his shit today.

* * *

 **Keima Part 1: Why everything should be soft copy…**

Keima woke up at his desk, having fallen asleep doing work last night.

"Nii-sama…" Eri burst into his room, "Tenri-san is waiting at the Café…" Keima grunted and stretched.

"Your face looks nice today…" his sister remarked, smiling; Keima automatically became suspicious… In games, when the MC's friend said something like that, there was bound to be something drawn on his face.

One glance in the mirror proved that, once again, game logic is always right… On his face, yesterday's script was imprinted so well that it was almost readable.

* * *

 **Chihiro Part 2: You can dress up nicely for friends too…**

Chihiro was dressed well for once, compared to her usual lazy "throw it on" attitude that she had for her university classes.

As she waited outside her university, waiting for the bus, she spotted Kako turning the corner.

Before Chihiro could even greet her, the crazy musician pulled a 180 and turned around, leaving a confused Chihiro to chase after her.

"This isn't a date, okay!" Kako clarified, after the former had grabbed her hand. Chihiro sweatdropped.

* * *

 **Keima Part 2: Why you don't sleep in class…**

"Nii-sama, do you know where the photo albums are?" Eri asked, "I wanted to show Tenri-san a picture," Keima, who had barely entered the room with his head in his PF Zoi, slowly sat down at the table opposite them.

"Over my dead body…" Keima muttered, not looking over his game. Eri already knew of the embarrassing pictures his mother had taken, and it was completely unnecessary for Tenri to see them too.

"You may as well die now, then…" Eri laughed, opening the pictures in her phone and revealing a picture of a sleeping Keima in a puddle of drool and a weird smile on his face, clearly a side product about some dream with Yokkyun, "Chihiro-san sent me this…"

Keima tried, with some success, to stop his face from growing red at the thought of Chihiro taking candid pictures of him.

* * *

 **Chihiro Part 3: Cat videos make everyone weirdly happy…**

Chihiro was in the bus, chuckling at the picture on her phone that she had forwarded to Eri.

"Why are you laughing, Chihiro?" Kako asked, "another cat video…"

"Not that today," Chihiro turned the phone away, but as usual, Kako missed the cue, and glanced at the picture of some guy drooling.

"He looks like he saw a cat video…" she remarked, moving back into her seat.

* * *

 **Keima Part 3: Magic- All day, every day…**

Once Tenri and Keima had said their goodbyes to Eri, Tenri stopped outside her house.

"I-I forgot something…" she stumbled out, before running in. Keima waited patiently outside.

Tenri appeared five minutes later, carrying her magic box.

"You're expecting to be that bored…" Keima said blankly, sweatdropping.

* * *

 **Chihiro Part 4: Food + Fast rides = disaster…**

"So where do you want to go today?" Chihiro asked. The two of them were looking at a pamphlet. Seeing that this was Kako's first time coming to DesneySea, she'd get to choose.

Kako pointed at a couple of places.

When matching them to key, Chihiro noted they were mostly restaurants, save for the one which was a jet coaster.

"Alright…" Chihiro smiled, folding up the pamphlet, "don't expect me to sit next to you on the Jet coaster, though…"

* * *

 **Keima Part 4: Birds of a feather?**

"Say… can we make a stopover for a bit," Keima asked. The two of them were by a mall, having just drove to Narusawa.

"What is it, Keima-kun?" Keima motioned for her to wait for a few moments.

Keima returned, ten minutes later, arms laden with bags and breathing laboured, expecting Tenri to be surprised at his game shopping level.

Keima turned out to be more surprised… Tenri had two doves on her shoulders and was pulling a new one out of her sleeve. Keima just hoped that none of them pooped in his car.

* * *

 **Chihiro Part 5: Motion sickness is a bitch…**

"I'm putting my foot down… we have to ride some of the rides…" Chihiro said firmly, trying to pull a hungry Kako away from yet another food stand.

"But I didn't have breakfast today…" Chihiro stopped… if she was here on an empty stomach, now was the perfect time to go on some of the faster rides.

Cue the two of them boarding the jet coaster, raging rapids and speeding trains…

Chihiro held Kako's hair as she puked in a bin… turns out that having an empty stomach doesn't stop nausea…

* * *

 **Keima Part 5: Fluffy Hell…**

"Nee… Keima-kun…" Tenri's muffled voice came from behind a black screen… "you really like these games, huh?"

"Of course…" Keima replied, cocking his gun like a boss, "if it involves saving a girl, I will play it…"

"Congratulations…" the stall owner passed a large bunny over. Keima smiled and offered it to Tenri…

"Nah, I'm good…" the camera pulled back, revealing Tenri already holding three equally large stuffed toys.

* * *

Keima was definitely happier being here, compared to last time. He hadn't visited this place at all while he was living alone.

Well, he could hardly blame the place… he just had one too many memories here… Like when Diana and Haqua kidnapped him and forced him to go on the rides… That had been around the time he was looking for the Goddesses, right?

He would have killed to have the knowledge now at that time, because it would have saved him a ton of trouble and gaming time.

His companion was better this time too… Despite being a real girl, Tenri rarely expected anything from him. She actually allowed him to play that cowboy shooting game, and as he expected, he won the grand prize… Like, four times…

In the end, Tenri only kept the fluffy bear he had won on his third game, so he just gave the other three to some passing children.

"That's nice of you, Keima-kun…" Tenri said, hugging her bear.

Keima scoffed… niceness was hardly the case here… he just wanted to get rid of them.

Besides, Keima could agree that some of his actions were anything but nice.

"I have to say though… I'm surprised Diana hasn't come out yet…"

"Do you want me to call her out?" the shy childhood friend asked, closing her eyes.

"No, God no…" but before he could say anything more, Tenri's outline wavered, and her eyes opened to show a startling red that Keima hadn't seen in a long time.

Diana was there, in her winged glory. Keima's eyes flickered side to side, seeing if anyone could see anything, but no one had reacted, so he guessed not.

"Too bad…" Diana smirked, "It's been a while, Katsuragi-san…"

Keima rubbed his head awkwardly.

"Hi Diana," he said sheepishly, "am I going to die now?"

"I can hardly kill Tenri's partner on a date… so maybe later…"

Keima sighed. Of course he had this coming.

"Actually, I have something to ask you, Katsuragi-san…"

"Alright, shoot…"

"Are you actually Katsuragi-san?"

Keima's eyes narrowed.

"Obviously… I look like him, don't I?"

"You're not acting like him… Like you haven't played with your game console the entire time you were here…" Diana retorted. Keima sighed… wasn't it obvious what he was trying to do?

"At the moment, it's more important that I make a good impression, rather than play games…"

Diana smiled lightly, which creeped Keima out.

"You've grown, Katsuragi-san…"

"I hope…" he sighed, looking at his watch. It was three pm now, and despite the question hovering at the back of his mind all day, he still didn't have an answer.

It was all fine and well that he had accepted her invitation… He had enjoyed spending that time with her… just… that was it?

"Did you change your mind?" Keima looked up, to where Diana had her eyes averted too, "from your letter…"

That was the big question, huh? Too bad there wasn't an answer in sight.

"I don't know…" he mumbled honestly, "I just wanted to do something for Tenri…"

"Why?"

"I feel guilty, of course!" Keima yelled quietly, before calming himself down. It wasn't like him to get emotional, but so much had changed. He couldn't apologize if he couldn't explain what he thought.

"I took everyone too lightly," Keima spoke, "I said some callous things that I can't take back… the least I could do is make it up to everyone until they can forgive me…"

"That's all good and well, Katsuragi-san…" Diana replied coldly, "but you cannot change your feelings…"

She stepped forward, so Keima couldn't avoid looking at her.

"Tell me… do you love Tenri?"

"I don't know…"

"Then do you love that other girl… Chihiro, was it?"

"I… I don't know…"

"I don't know what your big idea is, but don't invite Tenri to anything again until you decide…"

Before Keima could say anything, Diana's outline wavered again, leaving Tenri in her place. Tenri picked up the stuffed bear of the ground, where the Goddess had dropped it. Keima was looking at the floor.

"Keima-kun…" he looked up, "I hope Diana didn't tell you anything weird."

"She didn't," he assured, smiling at her. Tenri could see that it was a forced one. Whatever her inner Goddess had said was clearly bothering him.

"Keima-kun…" she pulled out her magic trick box… "do you want to see a trick?"

Keima looked confused.

"I thought you left it in the car…" he looked at it closely, but it was the same one.

"That's the trick…" she grinned… Keima felt his mouth curl up as well.

"So… do you want to go to the 3D theatre?" Keima asked, his head nodding lightly at the building in view.

"3D?"

"Yeah… with glasses and triple layered screens… that kind of stuff…" Tenri looked up shyly.

"Sure… Keima-kun…"

And in what may have been a moment of insane courage for Tenri, she offered out her hand. Keima smiled and accepted it.

Games got 99 things right, but one thing that could never reach through was the sensation of holding a girl's hand… the warmth… the slight tickle when your fingers interweaved… the ever increasing need to wipe your hand on your pants…

Keima's neck prickled slightly… he still wasn't used to touching people.

Girls' hands… they're really small…

The truth was, Keima did have an ulterior motive to choosing the 3D theatre, which was to sort his own thoughts out…

Tenri… she always looked out for him, and treated him better than any real girl… because she'd known him for so long, she could tell when he was upset or worried.

She may have little standing as part of TOYOTA, but as an actual friend… she should be perfect for him…

But why did it feel so weird? Her hands had a completely different feeling to Chihiro's. Tenri held on very tightly, and her hands were small… and it must've been… four minutes… holding her hand, yet his own urge to pull away had not disappeared at all.

Keima disliked being touched… why was it that when Chihiro had laced her fingers through his, he felt his cheeks heat up, and his hands close on hers, completely comfortable.

"Keima-kun…" Tenri whispered, nudging him with her elbow, "she wants to give you glasses…"

Keima snapped out of his reverie and took the glasses…

No… he wouldn't think about this anymore…

What the hell was going on with his brain? It was like some weird, romance obsessed girl had crawled into his head and started putting weird thoughts in his head…

Yes… Yokkyun would calm him down…

Yes… Yokkyun, his ideal girl, filled with shy compliments and childlike energy… Maybe she wasn't the best drawn girl, but when it came to story and personality, she had it all…

On the screen, the short film started, showing scenery from a middle of a frozen lake. His eyes shut forcefully, trying to remember Yokkyun's face, while they rode a bike on the path home. It was one of his favourite scenes, just before the ending.

" _Keima-kun, do you like me?" Yokkyun asked, her arms around Keima's waist as he cycled._

" _I do," Keima replied, no uncertainty in his voice._

" _What part of me?" she asked gently. Keima, despite the prying, had his answer. Still, it didn't stop his weirdly curved cheeks from dusting pink._

" _I'm not exactly sure," he admitted, "sorry."_

" _You like me without knowing why…" she replied softly, hugging Keima tighter, so her warm face was pressed against his back, "somehow, that makes me happy."_

 _They stayed in silence for a few moments, Yokkyun still hugging him tightly, and Keima trying to calm himself so Yokkyun wouldn't hear his accelerating heartbeat so close to him._

" _Nee… Yokkyun…" Keima asked. The girl behind him lifted herself up slightly from his back._

" _Yeah, Keima-kun?"_

 _Keima felt his face turn redder._

" _What part of me… do you like?"_

" _No part…" a very familiar, but not fitting voice. Keima turned around, revealing his very annoying ex-classmate, who was using his shoulder as an arm rest…_

" _Why are you here!?" he snapped. She was ruining his daydream._

" _Dunno… this is your brain…" she shrugged. Keima glared at her._

" _Fine… if you're a figment of my imagination, why did I imagine you?" he asked, turning around and continuing cycling._

" _Because I'm cooler than your drawing…" Keima scoffed. No one was cooler than Yokkyun, least of all, that normal girl, "and you like me…"_

" _Why would I?"_

" _I told you before… you don't need a reason to like someone…"_

 _Keima stayed quiet. Chihiro had said that, huh? But how true it was up for debate… In games, the girls all had something appealing about them. Some niche or something…_

" _Do you want a reason?" Chihiro interrupted, "how about how I shed my normal status?"_

" _You're still a damn normal…"_

" _Yes I am," she agreed with a smile, "I have a personality outside of code… I have hobbies… I have friends… experience… if I actually put effort into it, I could get any guy I like…"_

 _Keima felt his eyes narrow… The 3D was too full itself… obviously, those kind of parameters can't be translated into games. And who did she think she was, trying to play the jealousy card!?_

" _Still," she said softly, "I chose you…"_

Keima's eyes opened. By the screen, it was probably the climax of the movie, so Tenri was still watching.

So that was it, huh? Why he still liked Chihiro…

Keima was mad at himself. He really should have made up with those girls years ago… He'd spent so much time considering what to do that his thoughts between the 2D and the 3D had started blurring.

I guess that was his answer… while he appreciated Tenri for being his closest friend, he couldn't really love her the same way she did to him…

Chihiro had been one of those annoying presences in his life… chatting more loudly than needed in class, and making snide comments he didn't care for… but she also managed to change herself with her power… she became happier and tried harder and needlessly bothered him, but he did admire that in her.

He had that answer hovering in his head for a while, but Tenri's flag had dislodged it for a while.

He spent the last few minutes of the movie sifting through scenarios that could happen when he told Tenri, but she was a bit of an enigma to him.

A tsundere would punch him in the face… a kuudere would probably keep a strong face, but be hurt inside… a dandere probably wouldn't care too much… a yandere…

Keima cringed… thank God Tenri wasn't one of those.

In the end, Keima knew that real girls didn't fit in those molds. Trying to predict Tenri's reaction would be stupid… and probably offensive to Tenri as well.

As they exited, it was a bit too full with people, and he could tell Tenri was bothered by it. She was playing with her skirt hem, as if it was bubble wrap.

"Do you want to go to a quieter ride?" Keima asked, Tenri jumped lightly, "or maybe you want to go home?"

"N-no…" Tenri gushed, before quickly getting her control back, "Can we go on the Ferris Wheel?"

"Sure…" Keima replied.

"We have b-been here the whole day, so if you prefer, we can go home…" Keima frowned. She wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, right?

"You don't have to be so accommodating, Tenri… We can go on the Ferris wheel… who knows? We might get to see the sun set from up there…"

Tenri looked up at the sky… it was that yellowing blue that the shy was before the sun was about to set.

"Okay… then can we please get some juice before we go," Keima nodded, changing their route to detour past a vending machine. In the Ferris wheel cabin, Tenri noticed that Keima's natural inclination was so sit opposite her… Not that she minded.

Keima had changed from before, but he still appreciated his space. Even before the ride started, he was looking at the scenery. It took the girl a few moments to interrupt him, after which their cabin was high in the air.

"Nee… Keima-kun?" his eyes flitted to her face, "did you have fun today?" he nodded. Tenri breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's great…" she drifted off, looking over the rails.

The scenery at this time was no slouch… the sky was a nice orange, mostly clear save for the wispy clouds and airplane trails. The air was a little chilly as well. It was probably no surprise, considering it was early Fall now.

"Tenri, you should think a little about yourself…" Keima turned to face her, "rather, did you have fun today?"

"Of course…" the childhood friend replied, bringing her arms closer to her body, "I was with you…"

"It's weird…" Keima mused, his head on his hand, half watching the park as it moved by slowly, "it's been four years, but things feel… normal…"

Tenri felt her heart clench in something akin to annoyance. True, their friendship hadn't changed much, but the day was too short… compared to how she missed him…

For her, the last few years had been similar to the ten years before she had met Keima again. She went through her daily life, when his name would pop up… she'd wonder if he would ever come back, then go to sleep, the question unanswered. Then all of a sudden, he was back again.

"Why did you come back, Keima-kun?"

"I was going to apologize and try to get along with everyone…" he answered simply.

So… she was one of those 'everyone,' wasn't she?

Keima had accepted the invitation, but they had done very little normal couples did on dates… The only remotely couple-y thing they had done was hold hands, but even Tenri could feel the pull back, like he didn't want to.

They were only friends, weren't they?

They sat in silence for a couple of seconds before Keima realized it wasn't the comfortable silence that he was used to with her. He looked at her form, which was as close to being huddled in her seat as she could be without being in a ball. Light spots covered her uncovered arms… goosebumps.

Keima quickly removed his light jacket and passed it to her. She wordlessly put it on, but the frown on her face didn't disappear.

"Keima-kun…" Tenri muttered, "Do you want to actually go out with me again?"

Keima felt his teeth clench. This was the crux of the date, wasn't it? Was there any possible way she could put it without hurting her? He decided to play dumb, so he could find some better words in the time it brought him.

"Hmm…" he looked up questioningly, like he hadn't heard her last words.

"I'm asking if you actually like me?" she brought up her eyes so she was keeping eye contact with him. His eyes drifted off.

"I think you're amazing, Tenri… There is no girl who is as loyal or as kind or as lo-"

"So you don't?" she inferred from his wayward gaze and careful word choosing. Keima knew the game was up then.

"Not that way…" he looked at his lap guiltily… so much for choosing his words carefully.

What is up with those real girls' pace? Their flags come from nowhere and they give you no time to choose anything.

Tenri, on the other hand, had a small smile on her face. At least that was the truth. It was a bit unfair that she had him volunteer his feelings first, huh?

Around the time before, Tenri had very rarely said her feelings out loud on her own volition… Diana had told him the first time, and the other time, Keima had been so depressed that she had to cheer him up… show him he wasn't alone in searching for the Goddesses.

Maybe it had been why it was so hard for her to move on…

"Nee… Keima-kun," she scrunched her half-covered hands in her lap, "I love you…"

Keima was surprised… he already knew that she did, so it had to be the conviction she said it with. There wasn't any hesitation in her eyes, and she said it straight, despite knowing full well that he didn't feel the same way. Keima felt a whole new wave of loathing toward himself.

"I'm sorry…" he muttered, "That isn't going to change anything…"

"I know…" Tenri said, standing up, "I wasn't expecting it to…"

Keima was angry… in a game; this kind of development would have made all the difference in the world… The sun was nearing its descent, while Tenri watched it. This was the FRIGGIN' CLIMAX!

There had to be something Keima could say… something about how any guy would be lucky to have Tenri… or that real love was unfair, and she deserved better than him.

"I really am sorry, Tenri… You deserve bett-" Keima started, when he felt two hands on his cheek. When he looked up in reaction, he met Tenri's face closing the distance, her eyes closed.

Keima made a sound when her lips met his, but he didn't fight back… In fact, it felt nice… nostalgic, even.

Yes, Tenri wasn't expecting anything more… when they separated, Keima fell back on her seat, his eyes wide, with a look she could call 'stupefied'. That made her happy, somehow. This scenery… this shot… this is something she'd hold in her heart forever… The day she finally got Keima to shut up…

Far above her head, the stars were twinkling…

* * *

However, in the next cabin, a girl was sitting in her seat, teeth closed in a vice grip and face completely blank. It was fairly obvious that keeping that face was painful.

Her companion noticed after a couple of seconds, and pulled out her earpiece.

"Eh, got a toothache, Chihiro?" the other girl said nothing, which Kako took as confirmation, "I told you that you shouldn't have ordered that last parfait…"

* * *

 **Oh... did I say different place and times... whoops...**

 **Alright, who here wants to kill Sir sleeps-a-lot today?**

 **If the answer isn't you, then this chapter wasn't effective. So sorry...**

 **And if I pissed you off enough that you did... then sorry...**

 **So either way, I apologize.**

 **Now, off to the review corner:**

 **xellos540: I think I've been pretty evil with this story this week... of course, you can be the judge of this.**

 **I do apologize to my interpretation of Keima. Both you and Shawn mentioned that, and I totally agree. When you're a girl writing a romance fanfiction with rose-tinted glasses, that does kind of happen.**

 **That being said, I did ham on the game imagery a bit more this chapter, so let me know if it's any better.**

 **Shawn Raven: The date... surprisingly didn't need much planning on Keima's side... whoops. I guess it was just easier for Keima to just follow the flow of it all.**

 **Indeed, I am... Technically, I'm Pakistani, but I was born and bred in South Africa, but we did break of from India, and I'm not one to be a stickler to terminology. It's up to you if you consider me Indian.**

 **Guest: Damn, you called it... Of course, you'll only get to see Chihiro's reaction properly next chapter. Talk about muddying the waters... having the two of them being in the same place.**

 **x-MidnightReader-x: I guess that answers your question... The fact that you pointed how the date was going to end actually amused me, because that is where all the wham is... Tenri seemed to have found some kind of closure, Keima seems to have found out the power of real girls... Chihiro... just friggin' found out.**

 **I do like Tenri's braids, but it's one of those things that may be a bit immature for an adult, so I figured a single braid would work as well.**

 **Also, I got 2 new story follows today. Yay!**

 **Thank you guys so much for the support. Of course, I'll give it my best with this story... next week though.**

 **I have a lab report and some assignments due this week, as well as having to study for my exams, so updating is going to be slower.**

 **In any case, I will see ya'll next time... also, if anyone has some ideas about a cover drawing, give me a shout in a review.**

 **Ja ne!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, it was hardly a promise, but I decided to update this today anyway.**

 **Happy 17th birthday, . I am a little late, considering it's in the last 6 hours of the day, but what the heck! Have a great rest of the day and I hope you get lots of prezzies.**

 **In any case, I hope this continuation pleases you.**

 **Enjoy...**

* * *

"Nee, Keima-kun," Tenri said tentitively, "can I ask you a question?"

Keima hmmed in reply. It was a good thing they were in the car on the way home, or both of their quiet voices wouldn't have been audible at all.

"Before... on the Ferris wheel... what were you going to say?" Tenri was impressed at herself for not stuttering at all, given thatshe could already feel her cheeks glowing pink at the memory. The car was dark, save for the passing street lights which shone in at intervals.

Teri still was a bit in shock... She'd frickin' kissed Keima Katsuragi, the boy she'd been in love with for fourteen years now. True, that wasn't her first kiss with him, but the last time it had happened, she'd hyperventilated and gone into shock for long enough that the whole experience was very clouded in her mind.

She smiled... This time, that wouldn't be the situation. That would be the one and only time she'd do something so daring. Besides, it wasn't like he felt the same way, so that was enough selfishness from her.

"On the Ferris wheel..." Keima paused for a second, trying to remember what he had been planning before she'd shut him up...

"Oh, yeah..." Keima sighed, "I just wanted to tell you that it wasn't anything you did... That I don't like you like that... I'm the one who's wrong here..."

Tenri smiled lightly. She had been expecting something like that.

"I don't blame you, Keima-kun... If anything, I may have been too selfish to expect anything from this..." Tenri muttered, half to herself. Keima's grip on the steering wheel tightened.

She's not selfish... She's never been selfish... But Keima felt if he worded that out, it wouldn't do any good anyway. If anything, she deserved a clear reason why he couldn't date her...

"I am really sorry…" Keima said, his teeth slightly gritted in annoyance, though targeted more at himself than her, "I like someone else… That's why I can't be with you…"

"Alright…" Tenri half smiled, "will you tell her?"

"Someday…" Keima nodded slowly.

"That's good… I'd prefer you were to be happy with her than be unhappy with me…" Tenri said confidently, but she could feel a lump forming in her throat. As much as her heart agreed with those words, it was logical for her to feel sad…

Be happy… she wanted to say, but she knew her voice would be croaky and betray her.

Keima himself felt a rush of affection toward Tenri… Even though she had perfectly good reason to hate him or curse him, she just silently sat by his side, wishing him well.

"I hope you find someone too…" Keima smiled at her, missing the fact that her eyes were slightly wet, "someone who's actually worthy of your S-Rank personality?"

"S-s-Rank?"

"Like in games… the well thought-out and most beautiful characters get that… It's the highest ranking I could give to anyone."

I was a good thing Keima wasn't looking at her, because Tenri turned pink at the compliment. The knot in her throat loosened significantly.

Tenri did understand that Keima did rub against some people, but she could not be happier that her first love was this game-loving oddball. She edged herself back into her seat slightly, sitting on her hands.

"Keima-kun…" Tenri had a big smile on her face, which alarmed Keima a bit, "can you tell me more about this girl you like?" Keima blushed slightly and diverted his attention to the road.

"She's… rude… and obnoxiously loud… especially when she used to talk to Eri about her magazines…" his eyes flitted to the side, where Tenri was sitting and watching him. Clearly, this was going to be a monologue so he continued.

"Umm… yeah… she's the kind of person who'd be mean most of the time… to me, at least… but when she was nice, it always surprised me… She made a band and taught herself how to play guitar… I think she was helping the rest of them learn the rest of them learn their instruments… Err… she used to go watch all 'hotties' from the soccer club after school… and that one time…"

Tenri was content with watching Keima talk. Maybe because Keima really didn't talk that much before… They were both fairly silent people, considering how much of the day was just spent in comfortable silence…

Though for Tenri, there was something she liked that Keima wouldn't even notice… as he spoke, his eyes twinkled and shone in the darkness of the car… He really was fond of that girl, wasn't he? Though by that description, it was the same girl he had mentioned in his letter…

She shrugged, leaning back into her plush seat and listening to the voice she'd dearly missed in the last four years. Besides, it was a little nice that neither of them had really moved on in those years…

* * *

The next morning, Chihiro was pacing outside Café Grandpa, still arguing within herself about what she'd say…

She'd been pretty lucky to hightail it from the Ferris wheel compartment before Keima or his companion left, but the image that she'd seen before was still burned into her retinas and she thought of it way more than was normal…

Should she just pretend she saw nothing? After all, she wasn't supposed to have seen it, right? It would just be like nothing had happened.

Chihiro slammed her head on the fence separating the Katsuragi households with the neighbours, before groaning loudly in anger…

Nothing had happened! There was literally nothing wrong with Keima having a girlfriend! Then why did it aggravate Chihiro so much!?

For a second, she stopped agonising, while her brain was trying to tell her something…

'Could it be… I'm jealous?'

That thought did little other than aggravating her more, and sending her head, once again, into the wooden fence.

"Gaaaaah!" She yelled, trying to clear her head of that insane and completely irrational thought! Like Hell she still had feelings for him!?

No… it had to be that she just wanted to not be single too… Just to share an pure and innocent kiss with some guy…

Yeah! How dare he move on without her!

As her sanity points rose and her anger fell, she felt deeply ashamed of herself… She had no right to think badly of him when she was just unable to get over herself… and Keima and that girl made such a cute couple…

Chihiro scoffed inaudibly… that, she could be jealous of. That girl was so pretty, with her long open hair with the braids coming in together… She could almost see her now…

As her eyes focussed and the quiet thumping of the oncoming headache made itself known to her, she realised she actually could see the girl in the next house, her face peering out of the closed window.

As soon as they made eye contact, the girl quickly pulled her head out of view… Chihiro groaned again… So that girl was literally 'the-girl-next-door'… how adorable is that?!

In any case, Chihiro wanted to be friends with Keima, right? Maybe she could just test the waters and find out more about his new girlfriend… She reached for the door handle.

But maybe she should just leave it alone… she wasn't really supposed to know about it, was she? Her hand retracted back, as once again, her thoughts went into that horrible loop.

No! Chihiro took a deep breath and focussed her attention on the gold door handle that her palm was still resting on. There was no point of overthinking this, was there?

If that topic came up, she'd ask… else, she'd shut up and listen to whatever else Keima brought up…

And, as all normal customers did, she pushed the door open, a rush of nostalgia hitting her as the smell of coffee and cake rushed past her. It had been a while since she'd last been here, huh?

"Chihiro-saaaaan!" a voice called, before the owner came running, bowling her with a tackle hug. Chihiro, though surprised, managed to catch herself before she fell back.

"Hi, Ellie…" Chihiro said happily, "it's been a while…"

"I'm always so busy at the academy… Still, at least we get to send emails once in a while… Yesterday's one was really funny…"

Chihiro, who had been pretty wound up outside, felt herself relax. Eri did have one of those relaxing presences.

"I know, hey?" the normal girl nodded, "whenever I feel down, it makes me feel better…"

Eri's eyes narrowed… She was talking about that picture of her brother sleeping, right? Luckily, Chihiro caught the look.

"Yeah… no matter how bad it gets, I still won't look like your loser brother…" Chihiro was a bit relieved when Eri's eyes cleared, even if it meant having to insult Keima… Somehow, it felt petty to call him a loser when he scored a date before her…

"Nii-sama did look lame in this picture, didn't he? Even this picture got a laugh from Tenri-san yesterday…"

Chihiro perked up at the mention of the time.

"Is she that girl from next door?" she asked, her curiosity barely disguised in her voice.

"Umm… yeah… Do you know her, Chihiro-san?" It took Chihiro quite a bit of self-control to not scoff. Not that she knew her, but she'd been thinking about the other girl way too much.

"Not really… I just saw her through the window when I was outside… So her name is Tenri…"

"Yeah, Tenri Ayukawa…" Eri looked around, as if she just remembered that the two of them were standing in the middle of the Café, "actually, maybe we should sit down somewhere… Can I get you anything?"

"Oh, just some water for now… and can I have some aspirin as well?" Chihiro replied. Eri just wondered how Chihiro knew that little tidbit about the shop having some medicine. However, she complied, and by the time she returned, Chihiro was comfortable at a booth. She placed the tray in front of her, where the ice tinkled against its glass confines.

"Thanks…" the guest replied, after taking a sip and swallowing the pill, "where's your brother now?"

"He was up late gaming, so I think he's asleep…" Chihiro's sigh of relief was inaudible, luckily.

"Great… so how are things at the Academy?" Eri's eyes lit up, as expected.

"Three more months till I graduate… After that, I can finally start on the field work…" Eri grinned and pulled out a book from nowhere, "Look at these new firetrucks they have at Narusawa station! If I'm lucky, I'll get to ride them!"

For the next couple of minutes, Chihiro let Eri fangirl about her hobby turned into a career. She was actually happy that Eri found a career so suited to her, and it saved her from having to talk about her significantly boring classes.

Chihiro kept glancing to the door coming from house, from which a certain Otamega still had to make his appearance. However, in that looking around, she noticed someone was outside the window outside.

"Is that your neighbour?" Chihiro asked, even though it did appear so. Eri glanced up as well.

"Yes… I wonder if she needs anything?"

"You can call her here if you want…" Chihiro said in a deadpan voice, which didn't betray her interest in the idea. She was a little excited to meet the neighbour*cough*girlfriend*cough.

Eri caught the meek girl's eyes and motioned her in. Tenri hesitated before letting herself in. She quietly walked by their booth and bowed her head.

"Sorry, Eri-chan… and to your guest too…"

"No sweat…" Chihiro grinned, "Do you want to sit here for a bit?" she patted the seat on her side. Tenri graciously sat down, because as nervous as she was, she had no clue how to reject an invitation like that.

Maybe it was for the best though… she wasn't having much luck identifying the girl through the window.

"Chihiro," the normal girl introduced herself cheerfully, confirming Tenri's suspicions. She was the one Keima had been talking about.

"I'm T-tenri… I live next door…" the unlucky childhood friend replied.

"It's nice to meet you, Tenri-san… do you come here often?"

"Likewise… I sometimes come to say hi to Eri-chan, but I'm not a regular here…" Chihiro smirked.

"So I guess you must _know_ Ellie's older brother too," the emphasis seemed to go over Tenri's head.

"Yeah, the three of us are childhood friends."

"We wanted to hang out with Nii-sama, but he's been living elsewhere until recently…"

Chihiro's eyes widened. That was news to her.

"Where's Katsuragi been?" she asked.

"He just moved back recently… Though he moved around the time he transferred schools…" Eri tried to look casual in saying that, but she failed.

"Ohh…"

At the moment, all three of them were familiar with different parts of the story from four years ago, so none of them wanted to volunteer anything… The table fell into awkward silence. Despite being the quietest one, Tenri was the one who broke it…

"Umm… Chihiro-san, was it?" Chihiro nodded, "I saw your live concert before… You were really good…"

Chihiro would usually be glowing in that compliment, but considering the silence, she had to clarify first.

"The one from third year or second year?"

"S-second year…" Chihiro's eyes narrowed… So Tenri would have seen that embarrassing display of emotions at the end… That's a kinda bad first impression to make.

As Chihiro was trying to avoid the girl in the next seat's eyes, she noticed her face actually seemed familiar… she'd seen her during her concert, actually.

"Y-y-you were on the r-rafters, weren't you?" Chihiro stumbled out, causing the other girl to turn red too.

The tense atmosphere cracked at the first acknowledgement of what happened at that time. Or maybe, it actually got worse… Eri looked around like a chipmunk on coffee, while Tenri's eyes opened as wide as saucepans.

"N-no, it wasn't me…" she waved her hands. Why did this have to be the time Diana wasn't listening?

"Yeah it was… you had bows in your hair, but I remember that face…" Eri stood up suddenly, making a dash to the door that connected to the house. That put Tenri in a worse position, and Chihiro was now completely suspicious. She didn't know Eri had to do with any of this before. Still, before Eri returned, Chihiro did have an important question.

"Do you have one of those Goddess beings inside you?"

Before Tenri could reply, Eri returned, her brother, who was still in pyjamas, but was definitely fully awake, was leading the way.

"What the hell, Katsuragi?!" Chihiro burst out.

"What do I tell her, Keima-kun?!" Tenri asked hysterically. Keima grabbed both girls and dragged them into the house. As soon as they were past the doorway, Chihiro roughly pulled her hand free.

"Why do you real girls insist on pulling these annoying flags so early in the morning?"

"Why are you not even properly awake at noon?" Chihiro retorted back, "now am I going to get any explanation or not?"

"Yeah… just… go to Eri's room… and neither of you say a word until I get there… I'm going to watch this flag properly…" Keima rubbed his temples. Eri was already waiting on the stairs so the two girls followed.

Chihiro was pretty amazed, after she got over the first shock… That meant Keima, the nerdiest dweeb from high school, actually scored with a magical being… What are the odds of that?

In Eri's room, which Chihiro realised she actually had been in once, was a square table. The three of them took each side, but it was still awkward. Chihiro was watching Eri now, wondering what her part of the story was, and Tenri had her eyes closed, trying to communicate with Diana. The Goddess must have been asleep, considering her head was only filled with her thoughts.

"Aaah… Awawa… Chihiro-san… can you stop staring?" Chihiro sighed, falling back onto her hands, her head way up in the sky. There was no point in making her uncomfortable if they couldn't even talk about it.

"Think you could bring us some juice or something?" Eri gladly unfolded herself from her sitting position and scrambled to the door. Once the door closed, Chihiro's eyes fell on Tenri, who was pressing the surface of the desk with her thumb, for some odd reason.

"Can I ask what you're doing?" Chihiro asked politely. Tenri blushed and quickly pulled her hand off the table…

Chihiro smiled… Tenri really did seem sweet. She was a bit quiet, but she could only imagine that Keima would like that about her. Besides, she was the girl-next-door and his childhood friend to boot. She was a match made in heaven…

"So… you knew Katsuragi as a kid, huh? What was he like?"

Tenri smiled. That kind of topic would be safe, probably.

"In class, he'd never stop playing games. He'd always have his nose in one… he also used to keep his backpack around his front so it would be easier to balance his console…"

Tenri smiled fondly. Chihiro could tell that whatever she was seeing made her really happy.

"It sounds like he's barely changed from then… in high school, he used to do all those stuff…"

But now… not so much… he's assimilated into the normal people a lot more now.

"No… Keima-kun has changed," Tenri piped out loudly, as if Chihiro had insulted her, "he was stubborn and brave before, but there was no way he would have been able to save the world before!"

"Yeah…" Chihiro mused, "that might have been right…"

Keima was lucky… With all the qualities that Chihiro had already linked with Tenri, it was obvious that Tenri liked Keima greatly a well. It wasn't just by appearance that Tenri and Keima were a good couple.

"If the world has been saved already, do you think anything could happen again?" Chihiro asked.

"I haven't gotten the details from Haqua-san… but it seems that within Hell, they've managed to arrest those who were responsible already… I doubt anything will start up while we're still alive…"

Chihiro nodded, suddenly wondering why anything of the past even mattered now. Maybe she was better off not knowing the whole story…

In fact, she should probably go now… it was her presence that was putting Tenri and Eri off anyway. She stood up with her purse.

"If that is the case, maybe it's better that I don't pry…" she gave Tenri a warm smile, "good luck with Katsuragi… he may be a bit difficult, but he is a good guy. You guys will be great together…"

For a second, Chihiro felt an awful twinge in her chest, like someone was flicking her heart hard with her nails. She wasn't sure why, but she was certain that stepping out of the room now would change everything.

As she turned around, Keima was standing by the door, a tray in his hand and a scowl on his face.

"Sit back down…" he ordered. Chihiro considered rebelling, but both his face and tone scared her a little bit. She went back to where she was sitting.

"Katsuragi… you don't have to tell me what happened before. It doesn't matter anymore," Chihiro muttered, trying not to sound as sad as she actually felt. It didn't really work, considering the look of concern Tenri sent her way. However, it didn't seem like Keima picked it up.

"Tough!" he barked, sitting down as well, "I need your help with something, and you need to be on the same page…"

"Help?" Chihiro asked, glancing up at him, where he was watching her with a slight smile on his face.

"Yeah… you offered it before, didn't you?"

Suddenly, that moment returned back into Chihiro's mind, where she and Keima were talking by the stairs in Miyako's house. She was going to help, which confused him… What could she even do?

As it turned out, trash talking the guy you like in front of your friend who also likes him is the perfect way to wreck a love triangle, and that had been something Keima had been glad for.

"I did…" Chihiro sighed, pushing herself back on her palms again, "Fine… what do you need help with?"

"I need to make up with all the Goddess Hosts…" he replied simply. Chihiro was well-versed with the real, so it was probably be better to ask for her assistance.

"Well, ya made up with one already… I doubt you need help…"

"Tenri is the most forgiving of all the girls… by no means can I expect any easier route of reconciliation, so that is why I could use your help…"

"Here's an idea… how about you go say sorry to them!" Keima barely reacted to her passive aggression that was only getting more aggressive.

"That is the plan… just; it will take more than a sorry to fix some of the things I have done. That is where you come in…"

Chihiro sighed.

"Fine, I'll help… just… spare me the details…"

Tenri smiled. Not that she really knew what the purpose of this meeting was, but at least it was going somewhere.

"Can I ask her something, Keima-kun?" Keima nodded, "Chihiro-san… did you really see all of us that day you were performing?"

Chihiro nodded at the roof.

"What did you see exactly?" Keima intruded. He hadn't been there at the time, so it was more to get himself to speed as well.

"Feathers…" Chihiro murmured, "Ayumi, Yui and Kanon-chan had grown wings… Then there were three other girls watching from the rafters, and they were glowing , even though the lights weren't shining on them… they were the Goddesses, weren't they?"

"They were…" Keima agreed. What were the Goddesses thinking? Or rather, the Goddesses could make themselves invisible to people who weren't affiliated to either Heaven or Hell. Why did Chihiro see them then?

"In any case, that saves me from an explanation… so you know Kanon, Yui and Ayumi all have a Goddess…"

"She recognised Diana as well," Tenri added. Keima was a little impressed at how Chihiro had been able to piece it all.

"Yeah… Though Yui claimed ignorance when I asked, and I haven't asked Kanon-chan… I just stopped thinking too much about it…"

"Then you don't have to anymore… There are six Goddesses of which you've now met four…" Keima replied.

"Fine… so I get to hear about the other two now, right?"

"Yes… their names are Tsukiyo and Shiori, and they studied in our grade…"

By this point, Chihiro couldn't even pretend to care about those names. Something had sapped out all her energy, and this conversation was boring her more. Even her mostly relaxed posture was starting to droop onto the table…

"Fine… so we need to get those girls to forgive you… Do you even know where all those girls are?" Chihiro asked, taking a glass of juice for herself, so maybe the sugar could give her some energy.

"No…" Keima replied sheepishly, "before, it was easier to find them in their clubs or usual hangouts, but in four years, they wouldn't be there anymore…" Chihiro scoffed.

"I guess that's your first mission then… in any case, I can tell you where Ayumi is? I have the most contact with her…"

"That would be great… Could you give me an address?"

"Give me some paper…"

When Chihiro had a pen and paper on her hand, she scrawled some addresses and pushed it to him.

"Three addresses?"

"Home, work and alternative home…" Chihiro replied dully, "she's more likely to be at the first address at night and the third during the evening…"

Keima was only half listening, as he was watching Tenri programme them into her phone's GPS.

"I see Ayumi's motion parameters are still ridiculously high…" Keima said in a deadpan tone, earning a laugh from Tenri and a smile from Chihiro, "though can I ask why she has two addresses?"

"You may not…" Chihiro replied. It wasn't really in her place to say. Keima shrugged.

"Anyway, this is a great help… I can get down into this right away…" Tenri nodded as well, pulling out some more paper for Keima, "so can you think of any strategies that would be effective with Ayumi?"

"Nope…" Chihiro replied stubbornly, "if you want to apologize, you need to use your head too…"

"But you know her-" Chihiro, felt a sudden burst of anger, which had her sitting up stick straight.

"I do know her better…" the normal girl replied with narrowed eyes, "but this isn't my battle… It's yours, so you better think up something good…"

"I will, but…"

"BUT WHAT!? It isn't that difficult coming up with an apology for someone as straightforward as Ayumi!" Chihiro stood up, her eyes burning, "If you need so much help, why don't you ask your girlfriend instead of me!?"

Keima's face scrunched slightly in confusion.

"Yeah, I know that you're dating Tenri-san! She seems willing to help you and she understands girls… Why can't she help with your strategy meetings, or whatever!?"

"Tenri is just my friend…" Keima replied, his eyes not letting up. Somehow, this was not looking good to him.

"Sure you are…" she replied sarcastically, "Coz friends always go to the amusement parks on dates…"

Tenri and Keima glanced at each other with looks of dread on their face. That was certainly guilt.

"That was just once," Tenri stood up, too surprised to actually stutter, "We weren't going to do that again…"

"Why should I believe that!?" Chihiro snapped.

"Because Keima-kun doesn't like me like that!" the quieter girl said, her eyes tearing up again, like they had last night. Chihiro noticed straight away.

"You… rejected her…" Chihiro asked darkly, her fringe cast a shadow so dark that her eyes weren't visible. Keima gulped.

"Keima-kun likes someone else…" Tenri added, hoping that it would maybe help with the situation. The shadow on Chihiro's face cleared, but the look in her eyes was so frighteningly dead that Keima wished he hadn't seen it.

"Taking someone on a date then rejecting them… Trust Otamega to do that…" she said in a scarily even voice which didn't even quiver, "I hope your other girl is worth it, because Tenri was one hell of a catch…"

And without saying another word, Chihiro walked out, ignoring Eri, who had been eavesdropping by the door. When Chihiro had passed, Eri leapt into her room.

From her vantage point, she saw Tenri watching Keima, faint tracks of wet tears on her face. Keima had his head on the desk, so only God knew what his face was like.

For the first time in a long time, Reality slapped Keima in the face, and it hurt like a bitch. What the hell was he even doing?

* * *

 **And, the good mood is over... This is why I hate love triangles.**

 **Sorry, this was honestly supposed to be more cheerful, but Chihiro seeing that kiss last time really was a bad development. Even though it was only really discussed at the end, you can see it was hanging over the room like a dark cloud for most of the time before.**

 **On the plus side, Tenri and Chihiro meet... On the minus side, it goes in the worst case possible. Keima had made a bad choice by accepting Tenri's invitation before.**

 **I am sorry, but once again, I am going back to study, so I wouldn't be surprised if my next update is mid November. Sorry I left it off at such a point.**

 **In any case, I'll address reviews next time. I'm gonna go study now, so bye.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Last chapter... was weirdly received... I know I upset one reviewer pretty badly, so I figured I'd try and get the story to a less tense place before my exams start in full force.**

 **In any case, enjoy...**

* * *

"That jerk!" Chihiro muttered under her breath as she stomped away from the Café. How could he hurt Tenri like that? Was he just trying to add to the body count of girls who liked him and whom he brutally rejected and left!?

First herself… then Ayumi… then this Tenri girl, who seemed to treat him better than anyone at Maijima Academy did… why the hell would he do that!?

Still, Chihiro knew that her words had been selfish… those were the words that years of failed relationships and an unfeeling heart had accumulated in her heart.

" _You know, it's been four years since then, and I have yet to have any kind of meaningful relationship, because I'm too scared that it'll hurt me again…"_

Those were the words she'd hissed on the train in anger, but in truth, they barely scratched the surface. There was no way that she could explain the frustration… or the pain…

That she inflicted on them…

Chihiro stopped in her tracks, suddenly remembering why Tenri's tearing face seemed so familiar… There's no way she could have seen that face on herself, but rather, she saw it on one of her exes.

 _Toward the end of her second year of high school, Chihiro had promised herself that she would never reject anyone and hurt them. With what she'd seen with her and Ayumi, she considered that to be the best solution, and for a while, it actually was… until he came around…_

 _Tetsurou was a great guy… a year older than her, pretty handsome, but with a more boyish face… he would wear sunglasses, even indoors, but more as a precaution to hide his brilliant eyes._

 _Personality-wise, he was really great to… sweet, sensitive and a bit too obsessed with his computer, but not in any overly weird way. Chihiro could not have been any happier when such a catch asked her out._

 _As usual, it went downhill slowly. Chihiro would do whatever a good girlfriend would do, but the hypothetical wall was still there, and she didn't fall for him._

 _For three months, the relationship went like that, not deepening or anything. Despite what he'd do, nothing really changed._

 _Unlike the other guys, he didn't get fed up and break up with her. He just kept trying to get her to open up, and one day…_

" _Is there something wrong with me or something?" He asked softly, while they were eating lunch at the University cafeteria._

" _Hmm?" Chihiro replied, waving her chopsticks lightly._

" _Is there a reason you don't have any serious conversations with me?" He looked at her seriously. Chihiro sighed inaudibly and put down her chopsticks. What a bother…_

" _We do talk about families and friends… what do you want to talk about?"_

" _I want to know if I'm wasting my time here…" his eyes hardened, "do you even like me?"_

" _Why wouldn't I?" she dodged the question, a skill she had picked up. He was too perceptive for her liking._

" _I want a yes or no answer…" he demanded. Chihiro considered picking up her bag and just walking out, because there was no way he'd like her answer. Still, as usual, she fell onto her hand, as if she was bored in class. However, it was more of an action of defeat._

 _It had been a fun ride, but as with all rides, it was ending now._

" _Just break up with me, will you?" she said, her voice even and prepared. His eyes widened, before falling back to normal._

" _What… so I can be the bad guy here?" Chihiro felt a twinge. That was exactly what she wanted… She never wanted to be the one who pulled the trigger. She slowly nodded._

 _Tetsurou's face fell into his hands, shoving his dark glasses onto his forehead. When his green eyes opened, they betrayed no expression or thought._

" _Chihiro… Can you answer a few questions truthfully for me…" Chihiro nodded, "Are you cheating on me?"_

" _O-of course not…" she replied. The stuttering was more from surprise than her lying, because she really hadn't._

" _So do you like someone else then?" Chihiro shook her head._

" _Then what is your deal!?" he scowled. Chihiro was watching him slowly lose his shit but she had no clue how to fix it. Would it just be better to explain why she always had problems with relationships?_

 _Still, as she was stretching her hand to extend some sympathy, she realised she had no clue what she could explain… Her first love broke her heart brutally, and she still wasn't over it? How pathetic was that… the cause didn't justify the means at all. She pulled her hand back, a feeling of self-loathing resting into her chest._

" _I just don't like anyone like that…" Chihiro muttered, her previously stretched out fingers curling back into her palms, "you didn't do anything wrong…" Tetsurou stood up, his eyes concerned, but cautious._

" _How long have you felt like that?" he asked._

" _For some time…" she muttered, "I'm sorry…"_

" _I wish you just told me before…" he said, his voice breaking right at the end of the sentence, "thanks a lot for that…"_

 _By then, his face had turned a curious shade of pink and his voice was as steady as an inexperienced tight-rope walker. At that point, Chihiro was certain that her previous plan of protecting guys by never rejecting was complete shit, because she considered protecting herself as her first priority…_

Chihiro noticed she had barely moved from the gate. Her hand was just resting on the gate, and her face was just wet with tears.

Ironically, Keima's rejection was actually the solution Chihiro should have used with Tetsurou which would have saved him from the pain. Chihiro squeezed the gate so hard her nails dug into her palms.

Love was frustrating like that… There wasn't any perfect way to close off any relationship at all…

* * *

On the other side of the wall, Keima was in a similar agonized position at the table. While he didn't feel that he had dealt with the date badly, he might have been wrong in accepting the date as that. He could have easily accepted it as two friends hanging out, but as a date, he had given Tenri hope that something could happen between them.

"Keima-kun…" Tenri sat down on the table next to him, "are you alright?" Keima looked up.

"Better question is, are you alright?" he asked softly. Her nose was a little red, like she had been crying.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" she replied mechanically. While she was a bit tested, she only felt for Keima. Those words from Chihiro were way too harsh…

"I'd prefer if you didn't hold back…" Keima remarked, keeping eye contact with her.

"Then I'd prefer if you did the same…" she retorted back, more stubbornly than usual.

They stared for a moment before laughing. Keima looked over Tenri's shoulder, where Eri was at the door, watching. She had been around there for way too long, but with Chihiro's angry breakdown and Tenri and Keima's own issues, there probably wasn't any room for her there.

"I'm just going…" Eri said awkwardly, now that Keima had caught her eyes.

"Wait, Eri…" his little sister stopped moving, "and you please see if Chihiro is still around here?" she nodded and ran off. Keima's eyes drifted back to Tenri's.

"Fine… I won't force any answers, but can you tell me how you felt about my answer from yesterday?" Tenri gave him a half smile before lowering her gaze to her hands that were fidgeting on the table. Keima could tell that she was probably choosing her words carefully.

"I understand, Keima-kun…" She began, but that didn't please Keima at all. Tenri had mentioned that already, and it had showed absolutely nothing about her emotional well-being.

"Are you sad, Tenri?" He asked. That had been the question which he wanted answers for in the first place.

Tenri gasped slightly, her eyes started prickling again. Maybe it was that caring tone he was using, or the fact that asking her about it just made her feel slightly humiliated… In any case, she kept her long bangs low enough.

"I'm…" she started to reply, but it was obvious to her ears that her pain was audible, "of course it hurt…"

She didn't stutter, despite the croakiness to her voice. It was helpful that her voice was barely above a whisper, but in that room, it was loud enough.

Keima swallowed hard. That did confirm his suspicions. Tenri's face was barely hovering over the table.

"But it can't be helped…" Tenri continued, "you love her, and because I love you, I can't force you to stay with me…"

Keima, who was sitting quietly and listening, heard a slight drip he hadn't been expecting… Tenri was crying, wasn't she?

Keima gulped again… His games had zero training on how to deal with a girl like that…

He shook his head angrily. Why was he thinking about that when this was completely different? Tenri was his friend… and he was the one causing her to cry.

Keima felt that same wave of loathing that hit him whenever he thought of the Goddess hosts, but this time, it was definitely one of the harder ones.

Tenri spent all that time selflessly watching, trying to not cause any troubles for him. Was there anything he could do for her?

His hand stretched toward her, to rub her shoulder… or her hair… that comforted people, right?

"Don't touch me," Keima stopped suddenly, "please…"

Keima pulled himself back. Despite the abrupt start, Tenri would be polite till the end. He did appreciate that subtle consistency in characterisation.

For Tenri, she had a good reason to stop him… While she wasn't anywhere near being over her feelings, it would be a major setback if she allowed him to continue while she was like this.

Besides, this was her time to be strong now… she quickly swiped the back of her hand over her eyes and sat up properly. Keima noted that her eyes were pink again.

"I'll be fine…" she said in what she hoped was a confident tone, "it may take some time, but you don't have to worry about me…"

"Your selflessness is really annoying," Keima interjected. Why did she have to care about him, when she was the one hurting? Considering this conga line of pain he'd been inflicting over the last few years, why did she even care for him at all?

"I'm no-"

"Listen…" he interrupted, putting his hand up, "I want to make you happy, so just tell me how…"

"You don-"

"No…" Keima interrupted for the second time, "from the start, it's been about what I've wanted… now why don't you tell me what you want?"

From the time he'd known Tenri, she was easy to overlook… she was small, quiet, and had no ambition or desires… when he'd moved back in time, that part of her made it very easy for him to recruit her as an ally…

Still, he'd been taking advantage of that, and essentially used her as a pawn, which he wasn't proud of, in hindsight. That gave him all the more reason to find out what she wanted. He'd go to the ends of the world, if it meant Tenri being happy.

"I'm fine…" Tenri waved her hands in her face, "you don't have to do anything more for me…"

"What have I even done that qualifies for 'more' in your sentence?" Keima asked, his eyes narrowing again. Real girls just didn't make sense.

Her next action cemented that fact in him when she smiled lightly…

"You're here, aren't you?" Keima felt a blush creep up his cheeks, "you're here and you're trying to make sure that I'm happy…"

Keima grabbed his ankles. Why did that reply make him feel weird… like he needed to refute it, despite the glow of warmth that he felt in his stomach?

Only girls are supposed to be tsundere…

"I'm hardly doing that…" he snorted…

"Even so…" Tenri was the one who was trying to keep eye contact now, "you gave me something very special yesterday… That's why I don't want anything more…"

The girl felt herself warm up as well… both the date and this kiss… even the drive home had been something that she treasured, and would continue to treasure for as long as she lived.

"Just… isn't there anything else?"

Tenri shook her head.

"If you insist, I'll think about it more at home…"

Tenri stood up. Now seemed like a good point to end off the conversation anyway. Keima wasn't taking Chihiro's words from before so harshly, and she wasn't feeling too sad…

Not that she was feeling that sad from the beginning… she only started crying because he asked about it in the first place.

"Wait," Keima stood up as well, his words stopping Tenri in her tracks, "are you sure you'll be alright?"

"Sure… Besides, Diana is still with me, if I need to talk to someone…"

"That's good…" Keima sighed in relief, "I'm surprised Diana let me live through this…"

Tenri's expression changed from whatever weird mood she was in, into a concerned frown.

"Diana… she sometimes gives me advice, but she mostly leaves me to myself…" Tenri sighed as well, but for a different reason.

For some time now, Diana was very uninterested in the world. It didn't have to do with Keima coming back, though…

"Is everything alright with you two?" Keima asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Tenri picked up her bag, "I think she's just bored now… So bye, Keima-kun…"

"Have a safe trip," he replied a bit distractedly, as if he was speaking to Eri. That familiar way of replying made Tenri happy too.

"I'll be off…" she replied with a smile in her voice. Keima was just wondering whether this Diana issue was worth looking into…

Who was he kidding? Considering it has to do with the Goddesses, he's bound to get involved in it soon enough.

He was considering enjoying his peace for the time being, but his conversation with Eri came back to mind… it was doubtful Chihiro would be around, but it wouldn't hurt to check… after that, he could go back to his game…

Fifteen minutes ago, when Chihiro had walked off, Keima was certain he'd reached a Bad End… even though reality has a crappy design, he was glad that life went on… at least him and Tenri were on good terms now.

"Eri!" Keima called, walking into the Café. His so-called younger sister was nowhere in sight. His mother was behind the counter, so he made a beeline there.

"Ka-san… Have you-" his mother pointed, so Keima quickly followed with his chocolate eyes.

At the table where Mari Katsuragi had pointed, a certain young adult was sitting awkwardly, a mug of hot chocolate in front of her. Keima could not have been more relieved to see her… or scared, for that matter…

"She asked for you…" Mari spoke, before giving him a nudge, "good luck!"

* * *

 **I know this is kind of a cliffhanger, but it isn't evil... Chihiro isn't without sin herself, so we know this is going to be an apology...**

 **Why does it seem I like Tenri better? I'm making her way nicer than Chihiro... In any case, Chihiro will get to apologize soon enough.**

 **My God, this review thing is gonna be long... feel free to skip...**

 **Chapter 6**

 **xellos540: I feel we talk too much with PMs... I guess there's no winning here for me. Keima just grew in a different direction than what he was like in the manga.**

 **Blame Love... it wasn't my fault at all :/**

 **Guest: As usual, you bring the poetic words about writing... always appreciated, but you don't need to force it.**

 **Still, I hope this brought the feels enough for you...**

 **Shawn Raven: Hehe, I didn't do anything... that's just what happens when you get emotionally attached to something.**

 **That hand holding part made me laugh...**

 **: I did try for that date... did you like it?**

 **Chapter 7**

 **Shawn Raven: I mostly addressed you in a PM, but I hope this made you feel a bit better... no apology from Chihiro yet, but hopefully this chapter addressed what Chihiro was feeling, and the apology is definitely next chapter.**

 **Bae-bbles: I see what you did with that name ;)**

 **That is very genre-savvy of you... I hope you like the next chapter.**

 **pie: You... are odd... I like that. We could all use that bear.**

 **If you want to write fanfiction, I suggest making an account and posting it on that. It sounds interesting... teacher/student are a bit iffy, but I'd read it.**

 **xellos540: Oh my gosh, that omake... Hopefully Eri is more competent now.**

 **The addresses may take a few extra chapters to get explained, but hopefully you'll like the explanation...**

 **Guest: You are exactly right... Chihiro is brash, but luckily, her own failure reminded her to stop judging so harshly. She'll be less angry and jealous next time.**

 **Aika: Thanks... I hope you continue reading.**

 **Aika: I guess you did... Thanks for the compliment.**

 **Though to answer your question... I'm looking at over 20 chapters... by technicality, Keima is going to apologize to all the girls, and he still needs to bridge the gap between Chihiro and himself. Plus, the actual plot... I don't think I've even discussed it.**

 **Ah well... next chapter.**

 **EXPERIMENT 2.0: Ah, you joined the fandom at a good time. The manga has been long since complete and for some odd reason, the fanfiction community is blooming too.**

 **This is an AU which is based more around the manga than the anime, but not having read the manga won't cause any understanding problems. It isn't a bad arc though, so if you have the time and energy, give it a go. In fact, rereading the Goddess Arc will do you good, because the anime skipped on some details that were really interesting.**

 **Still, I hope you continue reading.**

 **That's the reviews done...**

 **So I've been reading xellos540's story (which you should read too, if you're interested), and I really like the omake at the end of the Author's note. I may join into that trend, but it's more of a trivia thing if you're into the Kaminomi anime.**

 **Kaminomirajio hajimaru yo!**

 **I don't know how many people actually know about 'Otoshigami, Calling you', which was the radio show that aired sometime after the first season came out, but it's hosted by Hiro Shimono and Kanae Itou, who voiced Keima and Elsie respectively, but it's loads of fun, and if you wanna see Keima and Elsie bonding, that's the way to go, because those two have the exact same relationship in real life that they have in the manga.**

 **The thing is, the radio episodes are pretty hard to come by. I've only seen them on Niconico and ostanime, but the latter got shut down and they didn't reupload it, and Niconico needs an account...**

 **So for the first episode, they only covered the first season conquests. It was mostly Hiro Shimono and Kanae Itou chatting, but they ended up having a quiz in the middle, regarding the different girls. It went kinda like this...**

 **Which girl had the hardest time during their conquest?**

 **HS: Kanon Nakagawa- he mentioned that he understood her pain because he's a negative person who doesn't have much confidence in himself.**

 **KI: Kanon Nakagawa- for her, she thought that being an idol and a school girl is hard.**

 **Which girl had the largest gap in their heart?**

 **HS: Mio Aoyama- Mio lost her father, whom she really loved and depended on.**

 **KI: Mio Aoyama- same reason, but she went on to impersonate her own father (suddenly, that image of Elsie with a mustache comes to mind). That was cute, and it shows that Kanae does love her father.**

 **Which girl had the most appealing attributes?**

 **HS: Shiori Shiomiya- Quiet girls make him curious.**

 **KI: Mio Aoyama- She acts all strong when she's still depressed. Kanae just wants to hug her, which is a feeling Hiro Shimono understood.**

 **What girl had the most understandable issue which worried them?**

 **HS: Kanon Nakagawa- Shimono did mention that he considers the world unfair, and it also came down to Kanon working hard yet still not feeling any confidence in herself.**

 **KI: Ayumi Takahara- Kanae understood what it was like when you try your hardest and you still get nowhere. Losing confidence in yourself is normal.**

 **Well, that's about it... Except Kanae kept putting her own sound effects like _jaa jang_ for when the question was announced and _chi chi chi_ for a ticking clock while they were supposed to be thinking. It both amused and annoyed Hiro Shimono to no end.**

 **Anyhoo, I hope you liked the omake as well as the chapter. I will see you when I do.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Honestly, I'm pretty ashamed... you know it's been long since you updated when there isn't a single chapter of this story in my updating list... That means it's been over 3 months since I updated this.**

 **In any case, Let's just do it...**

* * *

Chihiro… Keima's eyes narrowed. Was he in for another tongue lashing, or was this something else? He slowly started walking toward the table, but it felt like his legs were made out of lead.

In any case, her eyes didn't leave her mug. So she didn't hear the footsteps that were echoing in Keima's head… He was a half a meter from her table before he cautiously cleared his throat. As he had expected, she jumped lightly in her seat.

"Yo…" Keima greeted, a syllable that was surprisingly difficult to get out of his throat. Chihiro was looking at him now, except unlike normal… more like he had grown another limb. She shook her head roughly.

"Hi…" she replied, motioning for him to sit opposite her, but her face was turning red in shame… why was he greeting her so normally when she'd just… what was it, even? Even though she hadn't raised her voice or used one of her normal insults, somehow, she knew that what she'd said at that time had hurt more than any of the empty insults she'd thrown in high school…

God, then there were those insults… Otamega… cockroach… freak… go die… those were things she threw around happily in her past. No matter how you looked at it, Chihiro was a horrible person to Katsuragi, from the start even… why did she deserve to apologize for the cherry on top of her insult cake, when she'd never accounted for the rest of it?

She really was the worst!

"Chihiro!" the girl's head jolted up, and she suddenly felt something warm streak down her face, "Are you alright?"

Chihiro felt another wave of loathing at herself. She quickly wiped her eyes.

"I'll be better once I talk…" she muttered back. She sat up straight… if she was going to apologize, she'd do it properly… for all the stuff she'd said in the past… and for what she'd said, barely twenty minutes ago.

Keima felt himself both relax and become even more awkward… for one, as how she was acting, it seemed unlikely she was going to get angry at him… but now she was crying, which wasn't any better.

"Alright…" she said clearly, before she slumped slightly, "l-look, I'm only going to say this once…"

Her face turned a light shade of pink, as her pride reared its ugly head. She gulped down the contents of her mouth, which was making it harder to speak.

"What is it?" Keima asked.

"I want to apologize…" she muttered. The boy on the other side of the table lifted an eyebrow. He hadn't expected that… not that he'd known what to expect anyway. Chihiro wasn't happy at how that had come out.

She swallowed again.

"I want to apologize… both about what I'd said before in Ellie's room, and what I used to say when we were still in the same class."

"What did you say before?" Keima asked curiously. Chihiro's face turned incredulous… did he actually forget?

"You know… all the names and insults…" from how she saw it, no recognition passed his face, "'cockroach'… 'game brain'… 'the loser who transcends time'…" he snickered at the last one, before remembering that she was being serious.

"Well, I can hardly fault you for something everyone in our grade did…" he replied, shrugging.

"Even still," Chihiro burst out, "I shouldn't have, especially coz I…" she bit her tongue quickly, "coz I didn't hate you…" she averted her eyes suddenly. She had never talked about that before… much less with him.

Keima, as quick-minded as he was, had an inkling what she had been planning to say.

"Look, in any case, I went through most of school being hated for being creepy… it hardly bothered me… don't apol-"

"No, I will still apologize," Chihiro replied, her forehead knitting up in a flash of anger, which threw Keima off.

He'd given her an easy route out of talking about that, and now she's angry that he'd forgiven her… this was exactly why Game Girls were so much easier to deal with…

"Look…" she puffed down a bit, "while I can't speak for everyone, it wasn't fair on you… school is about making friends, not being hated for who you are… I should have been nicer to you, when I wanted us to be friends in the first place…"

Keima's eyes widened… that was the first time he'd heard that. Chihiro took a deep breath, trying to control her face's temperature properly.

"You wanted… to be friends… with me…" he spoke, a questioning tinge to the end. Chihiro tried, and mostly failed, to stop the effect of this conversation show on her face.

"I did… you seemed interesting… and I did want to get to know you better…" she noticed him watching her very closely, "can you please look somewhere else!"

Keima apologized and looked at the table. He didn't like the thought of cutting of his sense of sight when trying to make sense of this, but Chihiro had actually given him plenty. It didn't stop his curiosity from piquing up anyway… like the last time when she'd confessed to him on the roof.

But Chihiro's pride had reached its limit… she was done baring her feelings about that.

"In any case, I'm sorry about I said today, as well…" Keima internally groaned, "it was none of my business, and I didn't actually know about anything…"

"It's fine," he sighed, "Tenri's the type of girl who would never question my decisions, nor show me how she felt about it… in a way, you calling me out on it actually meant that I talked to her properly…"

Chihiro felt herself get annoyed once more… he was doing it again.

"You should be angrier…" Chihiro retorted, "don't try to justify my actions or look for a silver lining…"

Keima sighed… she was doing it again.

"What do you want from me?" he asked, becoming annoyed himself. That face actually calmed Chihiro considerably.

"That…" she motioned at him, "or at least let me make it up to you, somehow…"

"Make it up to me?"

"You know… like do something to make it better… like treat you to something or something nice like that…" Chihiro explained, her arms waving, somewhat frantically.

" _Let's go try that new Chinese place by the station…"_ Keima heard in his head, in the same animated voice the girl in front of him was using now.

After that horrible mishap during the Eve of the festival, Keima revisited Chihiro's conquest a couple of times inside his brain, trying to explain what she had been saying… there must've been some signs… some kind of foreshadowing. In the end, the closest he had gotten to a hint was that invitation… at the time, he'd assumed it to be her trying to waste time and postpone her asking out Yuuta-kun… if she had already liked him by that point, that could have been a wayward invitation to a date… Chihiro's saying she wanted to get close to him only supported that hypothesis.

So was this… an invitation for him to invite her on a date?

"Can I rather ask you a question?" Keima asked, frowning… if it wasn't the fact that it sounded too good to be true, he wanted to do this apology in his way. If he followed through with that, he'd just end up at her pace, again. That was never a good idea.

"That's lame…" she said blankly, "that's like choosing Truth in Truth or Dare…"

"So I can…"

"Yeah… I'll answer as best as I can," she replied. Though what information could he possibly want from her?

"Can I ask multiple questions?" he asked, not hesitating.

"Yeah, I guess…" it took Chihiro longer to answer.

"How did you know I was with Tenri?" Keima asked. The normal girl cringed slightly.

"I saw you… I went to DesneySea yesterday as well… I mentioned I had plans with a friend, didn't I?" Keima nodded. That made sense… though what were the chances that their plans would coincide in both place and time?

"So is that all?" Chihiro asked, standing up. She regretted offering the option for multiple questions, considering where that first question came from. If she could leave now, though…

"Obviously not," he retorted, waving a hand down for her to sit again, which she reluctantly did, "my next question… when did you see us?" Chihiro's cringing was visible this time.

"Before you guys got on the Ferris Wheel…" she answered truthfully. She was happy at the word choice too, solely because it didn't imply where she was… she could have easily been walking past that area, or spotted them from those cool magnifying glasses they had facing over the sea, which could easily be spun to face the rides… also, before didn't imply that she saw them on the ride, either…

Despite Chihiro's best intention of not steering the conversation to what happened on the ride, Keima's head was already whirring in that direction… if she had seen them before, she could have been around during the trip… she could have been in one of the other cabins…

But on the flipside, she could just have been at one of the shops, or just walking past, where she would just catch a glimpse of them… should he actually ask for clarification, or just leave it there?

"Look, are you done now?" she asked, her voice desperate. They were on good terms now, so couldn't Chihiro leave before she said something weird that would throw things off again?

"Last one…" he promised, "then you can go home…"

"Fine…" she muttered back, her nails tapping against the table.

"When you saw us… how did that make you feel?" Chihiro's fingers slipped mid-tap, so they were splayed flat on the table. In her brain, her mantra of "oh crap" started dominating most of her thoughts, but a small part of her was trying to think of an answer… She had asked herself that earlier today, but she had no concrete answer.

She was jealous, because she wanted what they had…

She was jealous, because he was able to move on when she couldn't…

Oh crap oh crap oh crap

SHUT UP!

Suddenly, her brain cleared.

"I'll only answer if you answer a question of mines first…" she replied. That brought her a couple of moments to think of an answer that wouldn't give him the wrong idea that she still liked him, or something foolish like that. Keima frowned, but it was to be expected… Chihiro never made things easy for him… plus, this kind of question was a lot more personal than the other two. He could at least comply with that.

"Fine, what is it?" Keima asked.

"Tenri-san said you liked someone… who is it?"

To say Keima was flabbergasted was an understatement. True, his question was to infer her feelings towards him, but she just asked all out… that was more like something he'd do…

Unlike Chihiro, Keima's head worked through the idea logically and smoothly, weighing the different options.

If he told the truth, she'd know for certain. That could easily make her mad, or make her happy. Then of course, how she'd react was still up in the air. Considering the whole nature of the conversation, and the fact that she was hesitating with showing her own feelings, it might be quite possible that she felt the same toward him. If that was the case, this could be the start of the HAPPY END.

But it was also arguable that her reluctance was due more to pride, than actual emotion. If she didn't feel the same way, whatever progress he had made down her route would go back to zero.

Of course, another option is to just lie. Keima was very good at that, but with Chihiro's observation skills, he could be caught out on that…

If he didn't answer all together, there would be no chance she'd answer his question either…

In the end, Keima shut his eyes and gave up thinking. In real life terms, there were many risks and parameters he'd encounter, regardless of what he'd say…

However, in gaming terms, the confession would blow out the entirety of today. No matter how he saw it, Chihiro and Tenri meeting had been a mess, and a simple "I love you" would go at sweeping it all out of Chihiro's mind. Also, it would inform her of his intentions from the get go, which could only lead to an improvement of their relationship.

"The person I like…" he started, but his head felt strange… like that spinning feeling he got before he would faint from not eating, "it's you…"

Two things happened simultaneously: Chihiro's eyes widened, and the door of Café Grandpa opened. Keima's eyes were focused on the latter, suddenly glad he was interrupted. They both were, in fact.

"Keima-kun, Keima-kun," Tenri burst in, before rushing to their table. While she appeared mostly normal, she was holding a tea cosy on top of her hand.

"What happened, Tenri?" Keima asked, surveying the situation. It must have been an emergency for her to run in… but the cosy wasn't soaked with blood or any other liquid.

"Keima-kun, something happened," she replied, her eyes drifting to where Chihiro was still sitting in shock, "can I show you something… a bit more privately?"

Keima immediately stood up, which shook Chihiro out of her sudden daze as well.

"I should… go…" she said weakly, but the other two didn't seem to hear her… or care… Chihiro was a little offended, but she brushed it off and started walking herself out. At the door, she turned around, where the two of them were talking in hushed voices, but Tenri had removed the cosy off her hand, revealing something white and crystalline, which even Chihiro could see from there.

This is a private discussion? Chihiro scoffed and started walking back. If they were acting that obviously, she may as well point that out.

"This suddenly started forming in my hand," Chihiro heard the other girl say, while showing the contents of her previously covered hand. From what the normal girl could tell, it looked like a snowball…

Keima took the ball out of her hand, feeling at the texture. It was definitely ice, considering it was melting in his hand already. He glanced back up, where there were little ice crystals flying around her hand… what the hell was that?

"You know," a third voice interrupted, only a foot or so from Keima's ear, "if this was a secret conversation, you'd be better off doing that inside his house, coz you're failing epicly here…"

Keima groaned… didn't Chihiro leave just before?

"I'll talk to you later, Chihiro," he replied, closing his eyes in annoyance, "can you go so I can try and figure this out?"

He put his hand on Tenri's shoulder and steered her into the house.

"Ya know…" Chihiro muttered, "I've seen that before…"

Both Tenri and Keima stopped in their tracks, before turning around.

"Y-yeah… Ayumi can do that as well…"

* * *

 **I know I said on TFPD, I'd do a double post, but considering it's midnight, and I was hoping to reply to all the reviews that are piling up, I'll get the second chapter posted later today.**

 **I don't know what happened today, but today, I just sat and wrote and wrote and wrote, being assisted on my background music, namely the Akagami no Shirayukihime opening and closing song (eyelis, banzai!)**

 **So yeah, I'll be back later. I have the next chapter complete, so once I just complete the author's note, which is bound to be really long, I'll post it.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Well, so much for being complete... This morning, I decided I just wasn't happy with my ending part, so I rewrote the entire end scene, which added another 1000 words... I really gotta learn where to stop.**

 **In any case, here's Chapter 10... I'd say this may actually be one of the most crucial in terms of plot, coz by the end of this chapter, you should get exactly what Keima needs to fulfill by the end of this story.**

 **In any case, here ya go. Sorry for the delay.**

* * *

After the rush was over, and everyone had gone home, Keima was left at one of the booths, his PF Hio in his hands, but his brain refusing to turn off from the previous conversation, much to his annoyance… He wanted to see how Usagi's route would end, dammit!

Just, the fact that Tenri could use Diana's power… or that Chihiro actually had an inkling about it… it annoyed him. He was long done with everyone's routes, so why were they coming back?

"That went well…" Eri commented with a smile, plopping herself in one of the other seats around the table. Keima shot her a dirty look.

"What was so good about it?" he spoke irritably. How he saw it, the situation just got worse now, and it was almost guaranteed he'd be right back in the middle, just like all those years ago. Eri's head cocked to the side in confusion.

"Well… both Tenri-san and Chihiro-san aren't mad at you…" she shrugged, "isn't that what you wanted, Nii-sama?"

"Well… yeah…"Keima sighed. Eri did have a point, if he was actually thinking about his terms with them… but this new development… he didn't even know what the plot even was! The plot of his whole life was messed up in a span of three hours.

"I don't want this…" Keima melted onto the table, pathetically, "can't you deal with them…"

"Deal with whom?" a third voice inputted. Both young adults froze, their eyes going toward the source of the voice. Eri's eyes widened, while Keima's did the opposite.

"Nikaido-sensei!?" Eri exclaimed. With her purple eyes and short hair with one lock draped on her face, there was no mistaking it.

"Yo… Katsuragi… Katsuragi-Imouto… long time, no see," she caught eyes with the boy, whose head was still against the table. He frowned and looked away.

With Eri's jaw being level with the table and her brother sullenly avoiding her, Yuri Nikaido did the honours.

"Mind if I sit?" Eri composed herself to answer her former teacher's question with a nod. Keima shot a glare their way, but didn't say anything. Nikaido sat down, but as she expected, everyone was quiet…

"What, do I have to wait for you to reach a save point?" Nikaido joked, which got a laugh out of Eri. Keima, while disgruntled, lifted his console to show that it wasn't even on. Still, he lifted his head up slowly.

"I guess the Real won't leave till I address it," he mumbled, before speaking louder to address the new occupant at their table, "what brings you here, Dokuro?"

Yes, the lady had two names, as Keima discovered pretty late in his adventure… He'd just known her as Yuri Nikaido, the form head for 2-B in 2010, and his sadistic Japanese History teacher. Late that year, when Keima was sent back into his seven year old body, he met her again… or maybe for the first time? In any case, this teenager was significantly different… she was just like a newborn, without knowing how to use anything, and having no qualms about stripping in front of Keima… then there was the fact that Keima actually had to kiss her on multiple occasions.

Well, he didn't like to dwell into that… or rather; he hadn't had any need to, at least recently.

"Figured I'd pop in, seeing I had something I was hoping you'd do…" then she smiled softly, "and I missed you as well…" Keima's breath caught in his throat. He still wasn't very good at accepting affection from anyone.

"So…" he turned on his PF Hio to try and keep the deadpan face he usually had on, "what do you need me to do?"

Though Keima didn't particularly want to do anything for anyone…

"You're hoping to apologise to the Goddess Hosts, am I correct?"

One of Keima's eyebrows rose at the exact phrasing.

"Who told you?" he asked, confirming her suspicions. She smirked.

"Just something I suspected," she pulled a small box from her purse and placed it on the table, "in any case, I need you to give these to all those girls…"

Eri reached for the box, but Keima slapped the back of her palm.

"What's in there?" he asked, his eyes narrowed on the plain box. Dokuro may be human in this form, but that could easily be something from Hell.

What would they need the Goddesses now, anyway? If this was a plan to get the girls in more trouble, he would destroy that box himself sooner than open it.

Well, Nikaido saved him the trouble, because she removed the lid. It didn't shake or let out a lot of smoke, to Keima's relief. In fact, the box's contents were very normal. Eri tentatively pulled out something.

"Is that a… watch?"

Sure enough, the thin strap and plain face, it did appear to be a worn, old-fashioned watch. Keima pulled out one himself, inspecting the unmoving hands, both being at 12. There wasn't even a winding stem or button on the side…

His nails automatically went under the face, trying to pry off the back, but the smooth edges showed that putting in new batteries would probably be tough.

He rolled his eyes, tossing it by their weak leather, back into the box.

They seemed harmless enough… but kind of useless as well. Who'd even be bothered to find a screwdriver to put a battery in that boring looking watch?

"That isn't a proper watch, you know?" Nikaido remarked, "it's more of a power indicator…"

"A power indicator?" Eri repeated questioningly, placing it on her wrist, "how can it measure my power?"

"It measures _Magic_ power, Katsuragi-Imouto…" the former teacher sighed, "so can I trust you to hand it over to all the girls?"

"Why do you even care how much power those girls have, Dokuro?" Keima asked, pulling the box in front of him. He'd seen quite a few magical objects before, but none quite as boring… or functional as this one.

Nikaido smiled widely.

"If all goes right, I'm going to free the Goddesses from their host, using those…" she nodded at the box.

Before anyone could speak in protest, the slightly older lady was on her feet.

"This is your final mission, Katsuragi… so will you help me free the Goddesses?"

Keima's face screwed in concentration at the new goal that had been placed in front of him. It had come from nowhere, that's for sure… what would the girls say to losing their Goddess? Or what would the Goddesses say to losing their hosts? He wasn't even sure all the girls still had their Goddesses, considering how he had only met Tenri… how would Tenri feel, losing the best friend that she'd been with for two-thirds of her life?

"I don't th-"

"If you're thinking of the hosts, don't!" Nikaido interrupted, "it's best the Goddesses leave before their hosts can inherit all their powers…" the who table occupants just sat with bewildered looks on their face. That was something the former-teacher was quite used to.

"You guys seriously know nothing?" they nodded blankly, which led the older lady to sigh and sit down.

"I had assumed the Goddesses had left their hosts pretty soon after we'd won against Satyr, because they weren't needed anymore… however, I only talked with Tenri-chan a few months ago when I discovered all of them were still here…" she paused a second as she chose her words, "actually, Tenri hadn't been certain, as the Goddesses weren't in contact… it was Diana who confirmed what a risk there was with a group of Goddesses joining a group of humans... while I'm not a hundred percent certain, the Goddesses need permission from their hosts to leave… so for the Jupiter sisters, all twelve of the people involved would need to be in favour in the Goddesses leaving…"

"The hosts are reasonable people… I'm sure the permission thing wouldn't be difficult…" Keima replied. Eri was too busy absorbing what Nikaido had sprung on them.

"It isn't…" Nikaido closed her eyes, as her head fell into her hand, "there was another more pressing issue… like you remember how you got all the Goddesses powerful enough that they could stop Vintage…"

Keima nodded.

"The Goddesses reached their peak then, and their powers started waning again…"

"Was it because there was no one for the hosts to love?"

"It wasn't that…" she sighed, "I'm not sure what it is, but it was almost as if the power in the Goddesses were breaking down before within themselves and transferring to their host…"

Suddenly, the image of Tenri with a flurry in her hands came to his mind… Could it be possible that Nikaido was referring to that? In any case, Nikaido continued.

"While I'm not certain what's causing the breakdown, I've seen cases where it continues till the Goddess loses all her powers to her host, ultimately leading to a powerless Goddess and a super-powered human with very little idea on how to control the magic within them… then, once it reaches that point, the Goddess disappears altogether, and a gap is left in the host's heart…"

Keima felt his heart sink at that thought. He could piece the unhappy ending together… there was no way that an overpowered human and a loose spirit could ever equate to anything good…

"H-has that ever happened before?" Eri stumbled out, her face showing the same amount of concern as her brother. Nikaido's face turned even graver.

"The case I was using for research… it happened fifteen or sixteen years ago… with Urara's mother…"

By this point, Keima was certain all his internal organs were just sitting on the floor. Was this how things were going to end for the Jupiter sisters if they continued as they were? The Goddesses would gradually die… the hosts becoming possessed and devolving to Level 6 loose spirits that will kill and destroy everything, including their hosts…

Ayumi…

Kanon…

Shiori…

Tsukiyo…

Tenri…

Yui…

A piercing pain stabbed Keima's heart at the memory of him in Yui's body… he'd felt that heaviness… depression… just wanting to not move again… He'd seen with Hinoki Kasuga as well… the true destructive power of a Level 6 spirit… and those coupled with the power of the Goddess…

"I won't allow it," Keima sat up, his eyes narrowed determinedly, "how can I remove the Goddess without hurting their host?" Nikaido's eyes widened at the pained look in her former students eyes.

"Calm down, Katsuragi…" she smiled slightly at his passionate reaction, "the Goddesses lack the power to remove themselves, but there is a way to do it…"

"How?"

"As the Goddesses need the Hosts' permission to leave, having the Hosts using their borrowed power and the Goddesses using their original power, it should break the link between them without creating any gaps… Just, for this method to work, the powers have to be divided 50/50 between the host and the Goddess."

"So that's what the watches are for…" Keima mused, his eyes wandering to the plain white face of the one Eri was holding against her wrist.

"I've been told that only the small arm moves… whatever is on the left of the arm is the power the Goddess still holds, while the right shows what the host has…"

Keima imagined the arm moving, when the resemblance occurred to him.

"So this… is like a pie chart, right?" Nikaido nodded approvingly.

"Exactly… now, I need you to give these to all the girls and find out how the hosts gain their power…"

Keima nodded.

"Once you succeed, you need to get the small needle to 6…"

Keima nodded, a bit less enthusiastically. Nikaido got up again.

"Around then, you must get all of them to agree to give up their Goddess…"

He nodded again as she walked closer and closer to the café door.

"After that, you must bring all of them to the old theatre at Maijima Academy…"

Another jerk of his head followed.

"That is all… I'll give you two weeks to do this!" and with a zip, she disappeared out of the door with the kind of smile he'd have expected from teenaged Dokuro… Then her words absorbed into Keima's head…

So he had to find the Hosts… find out what influences the clock… convince them that giving up their Goddess, whom they've surely become close to, is for their best… then actually do whatever it takes to move the watch's needles… then bring them to the theatre… all that in fourteen days…

"Shit!" Keima dropped his head down, earning a loud crash sound as his head cracked against his forgotten PF Hio's screen.

"Ow ow ow…" Keima rubbed his sore head, when he noticed the new crack on his screen, "MY CONSOOOLE!" he shrieked, hugging the frozen game to his chest.

Eri rolled her eyes, wondering when her brother would notice the trickle of blood that was slowly flowing down his forehead.

Time flowed by, and soon enough, Eri was in front of the TV, the box of wrist watches balanced on her folded legs. Keima came strolling down, new console in hand and in pyjamas from his bath. Eri greeted him cheerfully, as he plopped onto the couch next to her, completely out of energy.

"Good work today, Nii-sama!" Eri spoke.

"Let me breathe, will you?" he groaned, pushing a few buttons in his game… Eri watched him in fascination as he first focussed, and his slouching form started sitting like a normal person… he was exactly like some of her classmates, while they drank coffee during the daily assembly. She laughed, which had him turn robotically towards her.

"You did every well today, Nii-sama…" Eri slapped him on the shoulder playfully, "everyone left happy, and now you can find everyone and apologize as well…"

Keima groaned… he'd forgotten his original purpose until Eri had mentioned it again…

How the hell is he gonna apologise then tell them he wanted to get rid of the Goddesses… the ones he'd gone through extreme lengths to awaken, and which he'd hurt the hosts for in the first place…

That was so ironic!

"Eri, do you have any recommenda…" the words trailed of as he noticed the look his sister was giving him, "that is one hell of a stare…" he commented.

"Nii-sama," Eri said, uncharacteristically seriously, "can you tell me what happened between you and Chihiro-san and Tenri-san?"

Keima sighed… he really would have preferred not to.

"Look, I'm sorry that the atmosphe-"

"I'm not asking about today," she replied firmly, "I want to know what happened while I was pretending to be Kanon-chan…" Keima looked down at his lap, "that was what made you leave, wasn't it?"

Keima didn't give Eri enough points for how perceptive she was. Still, if he told her, she'd lose all respect for her Nii-sama…

Eri might be useless at strategizing, but she might have some suggestions with how to deal with the emotional consequences he still had trouble understanding…

He glanced up, his eyes noting the slight differences from before… he'd forgotten that she had grown older since that time, just like him…

She had changed a little… she wasn't that carefree demon that acted like a little kid nor was she the monster that Satyr had been trying to use her… it was the human heart that loved her friends, family, and the whole world she'd been living in, which was how she couldn't be corrupted… that was the reason why she gave up her immortality and being a devil…

Keima knew that his actions in the past would surely come to bite him, so maybe it was better to explain it all to her… just the fact that Eri felt like she was intruding in every conversation was proof enough that it did concern her.

"I guess…" he tried to smile, but it came out weak, "I approached the Goddess hunt much too brashly…"

Eri quickly tore her eyes off his face to turn down the sound on the TV. Keima felt his smile become a bit more real at watching that simple motion.

"Sorry, what was that, Nii-sama?" she smiled sheepishly, when he smacked her upside the head.

"Listen properly, you Bug Demon!"

XxXxX

By the time he'd finished his story, Eri had tears in her large eyes, and Keima was looking at her, completely creeped out.

"You know, just the fact Chihiro wasn't angry when she left means that there is hope…" Keima rubbed his sister's open hair affectionately, "it's hardly like we're fighting…"

"I know…" Eri said tearfully, "but she had such a weird look when she was leaving… did you say anything to her, Nii-sama?"

Keima's eyebrow rose up in confusion… he didn't say anything to her… she apologised about everything that had happened, and he accepted… then they'd talked about what happened at the theme park…

"I did ask her how she felt about what had happened at DesneySea?" he rubbed the tip of his PF Hio as if he was concentrating. Eri looked at him incredulously, which completely went over his head.

"So you basically asked if she got jealous of you and Tenri-san?" Eri replied, "what did she reply to that?"

"She… she told me she'd only answer if I told her who Tenri was talking about…" his hand moved, this time his knuckles brushing against his lips, "like which person did I like…"

Eri's eyes widened again. That was a bold reply!

"Did you tell her the truth, Nii-sama?" Keima felt himself turn a bit red, both at the question and the fact that Eri was in his personal space.

"I was going to… but Tenri ended up coming back at that point, so I didn't get them out..."

Eri groaned, falling chest first onto Keima's lap… if it was her being disappointed that the words hadn't reached Chihiro, or the fact that she was way too invested in a story that didn't even involve her… either way, Keima punted her to the floor.

* * *

Chihiro was in a weird place again… Well, not physically… she was at her apartment, popcorn popped, coke chilled on the table, DVD Player plugged into the TV, and Ayumi slouched on the couch, chattering excited about… something.

No, her weird place was truly mental… now that Ayumi was here, Chihiro had no clue whether to tell her about what had happened in her life recently… namely, Katsuragi being back in it… or what he said to her earlier today.

"Chihiro!" Ayumi waved her arm in exaggerated circles in front of her best friend, "you alright? You've had this dazed look on your face for the last two minutes…"

Chihiro snapped out of her internal argument, when her brain reminded her of a good point. Katsuragi had made it perfectly clear that he planned on coming into Ayumi's life too… the least Chihiro could do is give some fair warning. She took a deep breath, her hands curling around the couch seat, parallel to her knees.

"I'm fine…" Chihiro replied softly, "I do have something I should tell you."

"Oh, really?" Ayumi replied, her broad smile making it ambiguous on whether she heard her friend's reluctance or not, "I thought I'd need to drag it out of you… so what is it?"

Chihiro swallowed, hoping to wet her suddenly parched throat.

"Do you remember… Katsuragi… from when we were in high school?" Ayumi's eyes snapped up. Chihiro's face was an unreadable white.

For the runner, she knew exactly why Chihiro would act like this with bringing up his name. They both fell pretty hard for him while they were in their second year of high school. Once the truth had come out, they'd promised they wouldn't let it change anything in their friendship. Still, it didn't stop the awkwardness and uncertainty that surfaced every time they talked to each other…

It was sad… they'd been friends since they could talk, yet their friendship had devolved as if they'd only just met. Chihiro had hoped that Katsuragi transferring would have helped the situation, but it really hadn't. In fact, it was like it built a new wall.

Well, they had come a long way since then, but they knew the only way they could get their friendship on track was to ignore the elephant in the room till it disappeared. Now that Chihiro had called it by its name, she was worried she was just inviting those three painful weeks from November back into her life.

"What about him?" Ayumi asked, her voice falling a lot more than she'd like. She remembered that time just as well.

"H-he's back again…" Chihiro spoke in a small voice, wishing she hadn't brought it up, "he actually said he wanted to talk to you…"

"Oh…" Ayumi replied, turning over on the couch so she was facing Chihiro's seat. Chihiro had pulled her legs onto the couch and was hugging her legs awkwardly. Ayumi gritted her teeth at that sight.

They'd spent way too much time being awkward about this subject! They were adults now, weren't they?

"Chihiro…" the girl looked up, "if you're serious about him coming back, we can't continue being awkward every time every time his name is mentioned…"

A weird smile came on the normal girl's face.

"Easier said than done…" she sighed, "I'm just worried things will just become weird when we talk about it…"

Ayumi cringed… she actually remembered that particular moment…

 _During their performance near the end of the Mai High Festival, Chihiro started crying. Ayumi couldn't pinpoint when, but by the point Chihiro was supposed to thank the audience, her face was streaked with tears and she could barely talk. Ayumi did speak on her behalf, saying the words she'd seen Chihiro repeat many times in the mirror before the concert. Once the five of them were behind stage and Kanon began her song, the quiet ruckus began._

" _Chihiro-san, what happened to you?" Ellie asked._

" _Yeah, you were so excited for this, too…" Yui tucked her drumsticks into her blazer pocket. Oddly enough, it was Miyako who tried connecting the dots between the song content and what had happened._

" _Was it the song?" Miyako muttered. Chihiro's already flushed face got darker, but that only made the tear tracks more obvious. Ayumi knew that Miyako had hit the nail on the head… Chihiro's first love… was the boy she'd gotten married to in the early hours of that day. Was she even over him?_

 _The discussion fell flat after Chihiro washed his face and Kanon called Chihiro back onto stage. Ayumi watched from the sides as Kanon let Chihiro choose a favourite from the former's songs, and both of them performed together again._

 _Chihiro chose 'Happy Crescent', a somewhat ironic choice, considering her open declaration of confessing to the one you like. Even still, she looked a lot more cheerful on stage. From glancing at the audience, she could tell that Chihiro and Kanon were truly sharing the stage, considering the amount of people who were cheering on Chihiro as well._

 _On the walk home, Chihiro was in an amazingly good mood. She didn't even take of her outfit from the live, despite her previous complaints of the boots being a bit too tight. She skipped a little ahead of Ayumi, who was walking more solemnly, now back into her school uniform._

" _Though seriously, how cute was Daisuke-kun!?" Chihiro gushed, her face shining, "I can't believe he actually asked me out!"_

" _I can't believe you actually said yes…" Ayumi replied. Chihiro paused a second, her broad smile falling._

" _T-there's no need to hurt him if he's serious about it… I wanted to give him a chance." Chihiro replied, her fingers interweaving behind her back._

" _But do you actually know anything about him? Other than the fact that he's cute…" Chihiro turned around suddenly, her ayes narrowed and angry. Ayumi froze._

" _He likes me, okay!" Chihiro snapped back, "even if I know nothing now, I'll learn more once we actually go on a date…" and just like that, her cheerful face returned, "what's the harm with saying yes?"_

 _As she started walking forward, Ayumi figured out what was bothering her… why she'd decided to walk Chihiro home, while the other girls, plus Kanon, had gone to a family restaurant to celebrate their successful concert…_

 _Despite the happy face, there was no way Chihiro was alright… She was barely over the love who'd brutally broken her heart two nights ago, and now she's already planning to date some guy who just randomly confessed to her… if this guy truly liked Chihiro, where the hell was he now? Where the hell was he when Chihiro was suffering from a broken heart for the last two days?_

" _Chihiro…" the girl, who was a good two metres away stopped, "I think you should reconsider… about Daisuke-kun…"_

" _Why should I?" Chihiro asked innocently._

" _Are you even over Katsuragi yet!?" Ayumi snapped, "You'll just hurt yourself if you jump into a relationship…" the normal girl's eyebrows knitted again._

" _Some of us don't get the luxury of marrying the one we love…" Chihiro frowned._

" _What makes you think I got married to him!?" Ayumi retorted back, despite the fact that Chihiro had seen the wedding dress that was stuffed inside her bag._

" _I was there, you know…" Chihiro sighed, "I know you heard my voice…"_

 _Ayumi felt her stomach sink. She'd definitely heard her voice, and felt that push on her back. She definitely didn't see Chihiro there at the time._

" _Oh really?" Ayumi's voice turned sceptical, "if you were there, what did you see?"_

" _Katsuragi telling you that he adored you, then Nora-san bringing those wedding bells out of nowhere, then you two kissed…" Chihiro said, her voice completely flat to not betray how she had felt watching that scene. Ayumi's mouth clamped shut. Chihiro actually knew more than she did…_

" _You were with Katsuragi the entire time…" Ayumi confirmed. Chihiro nodded._

 _So Chihiro heard her bear her heart out to Katsuragi… seen her put her heart into the only kiss she knew she would get… Ayumi felt herself getting a little annoyed._

" _Though I have to say, kudos on slapping him into shape…" Chihiro laughed, "that was the most entertaining wedding I've ever been to…"_

" _How did you feel about that?" Ayumi asked. Chihiro smiled sadly._

" _You two made a good couple… even if I hadn't decided to not interfere by then, I definitely backed off after that…"_

 _So that's why Chihiro was willing to date a near stranger… she just didn't want to interfere in a relationship that Ayumi was near 100 percent certain wasn't going to happen… Katsuragi didn't even want to tell her what had happened the day before… yet he told Chihiro…_

 _And even if we were talking confessions, she was dead certain that Chihiro's was better received. Maybe she hadn't had the guts to step into Katsuragi's room, but the dead serious tone and the blush that sprung to his face… she wished she could have taken a look at his face when Chihiro was playing her song for him…_

 _Even when Ayumi found herself on the school roof, against her better judgement, she had viewed a very precious, if not somewhat awkward, side to Chihiro which she never let out normally… and even when Chihiro kissed him, the feeling behind it were so pure and strong that even Ayumi could feel her own heart leap…_

 _So why did it have to be Chihiro who had to give up on her feelings?_

" _You don't need to give up on him, Chihiro…" Ayumi spoke softly. Chihiro had to step closer to catch her barely audible voice._

" _That's no good," Chihiro replied, the same fake happy tone she was using before, "I've given up on him already… Besides, you're his lovely wifey anyway…"_

 _And there it was again… that smile that Chihiro was trying too hard to keep up._

 _Ayumi was about to protest, when Chihiro put up her hand._

" _Let's just not talk about him… I'm going to give Daisuke-kun a chance, and that's the end of it…"_

"Honestly, no one won after that… you were perfectly right in thinking that was bad idea for me to date Daisuke-kun so soon… I probably avoided talking to you because I had too much pride to admit that you were right… Then Katsuragi disappeared after taking a couple of sick days didn't help much either…" Chihiro spoke.

Ayumi laughed.

"See, remembering a worse time did help make talking about him a little bit easier now…" she chomped on the popcorn that had somehow made itself onto her lap during the duration of the conversation. Chihiro frowned, her eyes narrowing.

"First you intrude on my private conversations, and then you eat all the popcorn that we had for the movie…"

Ayumi glanced down… indeed she'd eaten a significant part of the bowl. She pushed the rest to Chihiro, whose single eyebrow rose to the roof.

"That's the part of the sentence you decide to pay attention to…" Chihiro retorted.

Ayumi shrugged, licking of the salt off her fingers.

"I'm sorry I was there… but from an outsider's perspective, you guys really had a good mood going on…" Ayumi grinned cheekily, "I was actually more worried it was going to go further than a kiss…"

Chihiro blushed at the implication, but she racked her brain for something to counter back.

"You're the one who got married to him, ya know… I was worried that I'd have to see the wedding night festivities as well…" Ayumi just smirked, which defeated the purpose of the teasing.

"Nice try, Chi…" she shot a thumbs up, "let's just chalk it that circumstances throwing us into each other's love stories."

Chihiro groaned.

"Mines was a circumstance… yours was plain old stalking…"

"Po-ta-to po-taa-to… we can agree that neither of us won Katsuragi's heart, so next time he comes, we won't need to worry about it being awkward…"

Chihiro's eyes broke off contact with Ayumi's as fast as possible following that statement.

"Oi, what was with that? I thought we were having a heart to heart…" Ayumi burst out. Chihiro firmly kept her gaze on the TV.

"C'mon, let's see the movie already! Didn't you say it'd change my life?"

"But what fun is a movie without popcorn… and since when have you been so gung-ho about romance films?" Ayumi moved herself in between Chihiro and the TV, and as she suspected, the girl's face was flushed and her eyes bright and flitting in any direction Ayumi wasn't in. Chihiro was definitely hiding something.

Though Chihiro would be on guard right now. Ayumi shrugged and turned on the TV. The moment when she could ambush her friend would come soon enough...

Some minutes later, Chihiro's phone started buzzing on the table with the snacks. Chihiro jumped to pick it up, which only heightened Ayumi's reflexes, and despite Chihiro being closer, it was Ayumi who grabbed it first.

"That's mines!" Chihiro called, but the higher pitch and the frantic attempts at grabbing made it clear that something was suspicious. She glanced at the screen, when a familiar name flashed on it.

[Otamega]

The shock was enough that Chihiro snatched it out of Ayumi's hand and declined the call, hand shaking and blood pounding against her ears.

"S-sorry... you could have answered though..."

Chihiro took a deep breath as she calmed herself. Ayumi expected that she may have pissed Chihiro off, but that wasn't the case. She wouldn't have answered it even if she'd been alone...

What could she even say to him, when the closest answer she has is to reject him...

That was the second call of his she'd rejected today.

* * *

 **Honestly, I can't begin to apologize for the break I've been taking from writing... I truly am trying, but other stuff keeps getting in the way... I really will try harder, but in the end, please bear with me, and send me reviews. While I only visit this site a couple of times a month, reviews reach me all the time, and I'm always up to any recommendations or hearing whatever you may think.**

 **Alright, review time!**

 **Ryuumaru Kara: Yo yo! It's nice to see you reviewing, but it's an honor to have you reading, and hopefully enjoying, my stories. I'm glad you liked Tetsurou, and hopefully, the later part of this chapter elaborated a bit on how Chihiro feels about going out with other guys.**

 **Traveller: That is a pretty cool name. I hope that the next review I get from you is from an account.**

 **Ok, I'm hoping that passionate reaction is a good sign... in any case, Keima managed to deal with both Tenri and Chihiro in a mostly decent way... though he did kinda tell Chihiro he liked her... I wonder how she'll take that tidbit of information.**

 **Also, use whatever couple name you like... as long as it's Keima and Chihiro you're shipping, you are in the right place.**

 **xellos540: Actually, I'm a little curious... Is there any meaning behind the number in your name?**

 **I like that analysis that you gave behind my characterisation, and you're right... Keima is calming down a little bit, while Tenri is growing her backbone... and Chihiro... honestly, I'm just hoping that this look into how she felt after that whole ordeal makes her a bit more sympathetic as well. I know she is a bit much, but I don't want her to become completely crazy to the point where the readers want Keima to just ask out Tenri and be done with this shit.**

 **Shawn Raven: Haha, here's my twenty days... plus seventy more... man, I feel ashamed.**

 **I'm glad you appreciated the humanness behind everyone's thoughts... In the end, all the characters all have flaws and strengths and feelings, which is why they can justify their actions and words, even if the other characters don't take it the same way. Human nature is pretty cool like that.**

 **In any case, I think the tone of the last two chapters is... honestly, I don't know. Things are gonna get better, but both bad and good things are coming.**

 **EXPERIMENT 2.0: Oooh, fresh meat *licks lips***

 **Nah, just kidding, but thanks for reviewing on all the chapters that are out. Here's two more chapters for you.**

 **Though I understand how weird it is to imagine everyone being older. I've actually been trying to draw the cover picture, and Chihiro has a ponytail and Keima has stubble... that is a pretty odd picture to imagine.**

 **Guest: Hmm to you to?**

 **Aika 3 3: Here ya go. I hope you like them.**

 **Qruis: Honestly, it was your review which motivated me to start writing... so thanks.**

 **With any luck, I won't abandon this story... I already have the ending planned out and everything.**


	11. Chapter 11

**My God, it's been a while... I don't even have any stories in my waiting list.**

 **As a writer, I do owe an apology to the people who have been following this story, and I truly am sorry. I've written this chapter thrice already, and each time, I've just hated and scrapped every draft. This weekend, I plowed through this chapter, and I figured I'd post it up before the day is over.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Chihiro was the ultimate ray of sunshine today… there was nothing wrong with the world at all…

Katsuragi confessing his feeling when she still wasn't sure… Great!

Her staying up half the night wondering if he was telling the truth or not… Just how she wanted to spend the night!

Her being forced to question the last four years of her life, trying to find an answer of why she wasn't able to move on… Splendid!

Fan-frickin'-tastic!

To say Chihiro was a grump today was utterly wrong… 'Sick and tired of the world' was the more correct way of putting it.

Honestly, all she wanted to do was sleep, but she'd made a promise to Kako that they'd meet up before class… it was for the best too, coz she'd just end up dwelling at home, and Lord knows, she did not need any more of that.

So currently, she was waiting in line for coffee to try and make her brain work again.

"Come on, honey!" A male voice from the front of the line spoke, "what did you say you wanted, again?"

"We've been coming here together for three weeks already… you should know how I like my coffee…" a female voice replied.

Chihiro rolled her eyes… teenagers…

"But honey, you change your order every third day…" the boy countered, "Please tell me what you want, so I can order it…"

"Guess…" the girl replied coldly. While Chihiro couldn't see the boyfriend's face, she could only imagine the terror he'd be going through. This was going to go badly, no matter what he chose.

"For God's sake, just tell the cashier your order and stop playing mind games on him…" Chihiro found herself calling out. Maybe it was her wanting her coffee, or the fact she felt bad for the guy, but somehow, she interrupted them, leading to a few murmurs of agreement from the people in line.

The girl humphed, but gave her order. However, as they were walking back to wait for their coffee, they paused by Chihiro.

"Were you the one who said that?" The girl asked.

"Yeah, what of it?" That girl probably did not expect the stand-offish tone Chihiro was using.

"H-hiroshi, tell her off for me…" Before the boy could say anything, Chihiro had her reply already.

"Why, because I spoke the truth?" Chihiro smirked, "if anything, it's probably best that someone told you that your boyfriend can't read your mind, and unless you're willing to communicate about what you want, you'll just end up doing yourself a disservice…"

As the words came off her tongue, she realised the hypocrisy behind them…

Who the hell was she to tell off some stranger, when she was guilty of the same crime just yesterday… and she was an adult, dammit!

"Look, he seems like a nice guy…" Chihiro spoke more humbly this time, "be sure to treasure him and treat him well, so you don't have any regrets…"

Without waiting for a reply, or even to get coffee, Chihiro ducked out of line and left the shop.

"W-was that Nee-san just hitting on me?" The guy asked, his head cocked to the side.

"Dream on," the girl said with a laugh, "she probably said that to make a point…"

The girl was right too. Finally, Chihiro's brain was starting to clear up a little. Since that time four years ago, she found it hard to be honest with anyone… maybe it was because she didn't want to share her feelings… maybe it was just pride… but in any case, if she wanted any peace of mind, she knew she had to address Keima's confession and her own feelings from before, and she had to do it to him.

It didn't stop her fingers from trembling as she found Keima in her contacts in her phone… still, she knew she had to do it.

It rang for three bells before Keima picked up.

"Hi," Keima greeted, and a wave of relief and dread came to her stomach. It was all good and well that she wanted to talk about it, but this was going to be even harder than when she stayed to talk to him after that last verbal bashing she'd sent his way.

God, she was a horrible person…

"Ch-chihiro?" Keima pulled the phone away from his ear, wondering if she'd accidentally dialled him or something.

"Y-yes, I'm here," Chihiro took a deep breath, "I-I was wondering if we could meet up today…"

"Of course…" Keima readily agreed. With all that had happened after Chihiro had left the café, he had been hoping to discuss it with her before he met up with the other Goddess Hosts. He still had no clue how to break the news to the girls that Dokuro had mentioned.

"When are you free today?" Chihiro asked.

"My job is pretty flexible, so I can come now, if you'd like…"

Suddenly, her heart went into overdrive with anxiety.

"I-I'm actually heading to class now… maybe later in the afternoon…" she replied hastily, a notion that Keima didn't miss.

"Okay, let me know the place and the time and I'll be there…" Keima replied.

"Sure, I'll send you a message… bye…"

"Later, then…"

As Keima stared at his screen, he wondered why she was the one who called… true, she had missed a few calls from him, but she didn't mention them, and she'd been the one to invite him… given the weird way she was acting now, it looks like he wasn't the only one with something to say…

* * *

It was much later in the day when Chihiro plopped herself into a booth at the family restaurant where she was going to meet Keima, about twenty minutes before the meeting up time.

Honestly, she nervous as hell… she promised herself she'd be as honest as she could be, and they'd get down to the bottom of this… but that also meant she had no clue where this conversation would go…

Come to think of it, where was the line between being truthful and saying too much? She wanted them to get to the same page, but what if she went too far and said something that she'd regret… or if she hurt him again?

If anything, she needed to get her thoughts in order before she spoke. She pulled out a post-its pad from her bag.

Before she could write anything, or even think something of substance, a new presence made itself known next to her. She hastily covered the empty paper out of habit.

"K-katsuragi…" Chihiro stuttered. Keima wondered why she was so surprised at him being here, given she invited him in the first place.

"Yo…" he greeted, "I'm a little early, so sorry about that…"

He sat down opposite her, and both of them sized the other, and the situation as a whole. Keima knew for a fact that his situation with the goddesses wasn't the main topic of discussion, but she hadn't given any context, except that she didn't really want to discuss it that much, either…

Chihiro, on the other hand, was noting his facial features… not that he was an eyesore before, but did he get better-looking in the four years they didn't have any contact?

No, why the hell was she checking him out!?

After they'd placed their orders, Chihiro was staring at her empty pastel yellow pad, her brain drawing a complete blank as what to write… or what even to say…

Still, she had to bring up his confession if she wanted to get to the bottom of this…

"So Chihiro-"

"Do you want to go out with me?" Chihiro asked, her voice a tad hysterical. Keima's eyes widened as the words slowly entered his head.

"W-what?" he asked, near certain he heard it wrong… or that she was on the phone or something… Chihiro's face only got redder at the thought of repeating that. She really shouldn't have phrased it like that.

"I'm asking about your confession yesterday! Do you want anything to come of it?"

Chihiro cursed her mouth… there was no subtleness or small talk to absorb the shock of what she wanted to talk about.

Still, Keima's face became one of confusion.

"My… confession… yesterday?" he repeated. Like he thought it wouldn't come up again…

"Duh…"

What else would keep Chihiro up half the night, wondering why he would do that, or whether he meant it, and where he stood in her eyes? As much as Chihiro wanted to just push it under the carpet and not deal with it, she knew that lump would only get bigger and more thought-consuming the longer she sat on it.

She wanted to be honest about it, and she wanted his honestly as well, so they could get a damn conclusion on it.

"I confessed yesterday?" he asked again. When did he do it again?

"Unless 'the one I like is you', means something else…" Chihiro replied, incredulously. This topic was difficult enough without him acting ignorant.

"When did I say that?" Keima wondered out loud. Chihiro could feel the urge to just kick him under the table, but she kept her frustration under wraps… kinda…

"Just before Tenri came in when I was about to leave..." Chihiro replied impatiently. Keima was scratching his head, trying to recall what had happened the day before, which really felt like it had happened last year or something… suddenly, it clicked.

"Oh, shit…" he remembered, "Tenri came in, so I thought she'd interrupted me before I'd said it…"

While collected on the outside, Keima could feel a twinge of anxiousness, knowing that he had not prepared for whatever change of status quo was coming with this kind of conversation. Despite the fact that he'd run through all the consequences yesterday, he still felt underprepared.

My God, he really had forgotten it… Chihiro felt her nails dig into her palms… she didn't even need to think so hard about it, when he hadn't been expecting an answer…

Because he'd freaking forgotten about it!

Though this wouldn't be the first time Katsuragi missed important words being spoken…

She snorted at that thought.

"Wh-what's with that?" Keima asked. She switched from irritation to being amused way too fast… what about what she was saying before?

"You know, when I con-" she suddenly cut herself off… was it fine telling him what happened outside his room that time he'd been sick?

Well, considering she confessed properly the day after that, it wouldn't surprise him… she did promise she'd be more honest, anyway… maybe he'd take it as funny trivia.

"Actually, I was laughing that this wasn't the first time you missed hearing a confession…" she shrugged, "the first time I confessed to you, you nodded off on me, and didn't hear what I said…"

Keima's eyes widened.

She laughed, but part of her was nervous about how he'd react… or if he'd ask more questions.

Keima wasn't planning to ask questions, though… what Chihiro didn't know was that he'd been lying about being asleep, and he'd heard her confession, loud and clear… just, with Ayumi sitting right next to him in his bed, and the last Goddess being on the loose, with Keima not knowing whether it was in Ayumi or Chihiro, he opted to leaving it in the air.

Not that he made the right decision with regards to that. After that confession, he'd been near certain that Chihiro remembered it all, which was why he chose her as his date…

"That's… uhh… very honest of you to tell me…" Keima replied. Honestly, he was more shocked than anything that she brought that up. Not only did that detail make no difference, but if he truly had known nothing about it, all he would have done was ask questions that he knew Chihiro would not have wanted to give responses to.

More than that, wasn't she avoiding using the word "like" to describe her feelings from before? This was pretty much an 180 from where she was yesterday.

Still, he wouldn't complain. Considering she'd jumped into the deep end just now, she seemed to be wading into shallower water, which gave him time to think about what he could say.

"Yeah… well, I realised that things seem to go south for everyone when I hold back… that's why I decided I would be honest about everything and hopefully, everything else will fall into place."

"Is that so?" Keima wondered. While Chihiro wasn't a consummate liar like him, she was an ace at holding into things without saying a word, and whenever she did let it go, it went off in a completely volatile, yet still aesthetically pleasing manner.

Still, if she was willing to open up, Keima could think of a few questions he'd want answers to…

"Rather, why are you so blasé about this?" Chihiro asked with narrow eyes, "you're not gonna even ask when that happened?"

"When I was sick, right?" Keima replied with an intentionally flat voice. As he expected, her face darkened. Keima could feel a smirk come on his face…

If she was going to play with fire, she'd better expect him to have a few matches in his arsenal.

"How do you know about that!?"

"I joined the dots after you left…" he smoothly lied. Chihiro's eyes narrowed.

"You weren't asleep, were you?" she concluded. Keima had to hand it to her inference skills, but he was not going to admit to anything.

"You have no proof, you know…" Chihiro smirked right back at that remark.

"Why would you call me ten minutes later?" she countered, "it was soon enough that you were addressing something that we talked about, yet enough time to put some distance between you and Ayumi, who was somewhere around your house…"

In Keima was shocked before, now his jaw was hanging to the floor. Chihiro's smirk only grew bigger.

"I joined the dots after I left…" she echoed. Keima was looking for the part where she would blow up, but she didn't appear mad at all…

"Did you seriously figure that out, or is there some manga series somewhere that has my exploits recorded down for the world to see?" Chihiro shrugged.

"It was an educated guess… which I assume hit the mark…" she let out an exaggerated sigh, "it didn't matter anyway, because I told you properly the next day…"

Her face fell back into a serious expression. Honestly, as much as the last few minutes reminded her of the spats they used to have in class, she was still going in circles. The whole point of this was to address his confession, and she needed to get back on track.

Still, this honestly thing wasn't as difficult as she'd expected… though that may have been because she went at it in a very familiar way.

"Look, to the point I was supposed to be getting at," she hit her hand on the table top, "do you actually like me, or did you mean to say something else?"

Keima was a little taken aback at the aggressiveness, but that was kind of her style… other than the wording, this was almost exactly like how she asked him to the campfire.

He snapped out of the nostalgia and shook his head. It was more important how he answered this question, because Chihiro had basically given him a way out of this difficult conversation.

He could go for the Copernican revolution and project his feelings elsewhere… he could even say that Tenri was lying, and he didn't like anyone… not only would he get out of the bind, but Chihiro, who was still uncomfortable talking about this, would be relieved as well.

Or he could throw caution to the wind and tell her it was those red-faced glares that made him like her in the first place.

"What is going to happen if I say that I like you?" Keima asked, not backing down or looking away. Chihiro faltered.

What would happen? If she was being perfectly honest, she couldn't say that she liked him back… after she got over him, her heart just closed off to any kind of romantic love, and even though she'd tried dating, it had never changed anything…

Still, if she could fix the problem at the source…

A sly look came on Chihiro's face.

"I'll have you take responsibility for it…"

Keima smiled. That was what she'd said when they'd met up on the train.

"I like you…" he said softly. Chihiro's face faltered slightly and her eyes trailed down to her fingers, which were uneasily playing with the pad of post-its

"Look, at this moment, I can't say the same," she replied with that same tone, before her resolve strengthened it, "but that's because I've stopped trusting people in that sense… if being with you can change that, I would like to take that opportunity…"

In a bold move, he grabbed her closest hand. She looked up in surprise.

"I told you that I'd take responsibility, didn't I?" he spoke kindly, "and if you're willing, I'll do everything in my power to make you happy…"

'And to make you fall in love with me…' he added in his head. Chihiro's eyes were narrowed on his hands, however.

"Umm… you guys…" a voice from outside the two intruded. They both looked up to see a slightly sheepish waitress with their food, "I know you're having a moment and all, but I've already passed this table up twice, and I'd really like to do my job…"

Both of them apologised with bowed heads, before making enough space for the waitress to put down their food.

"I would like to make a comment…" Keima spoke once they were alone again, "not that this wasn't great and all, but for such status quo breaking conversations, can we have them in more personally relevant places…"

"Like where, exactly?" Chihiro wondered, picking up her chopsticks.

"I dunno… like the Akanemaru, or the school roof…" he squeezed his hand into a fist, "my gamer pride is in shambles at the thought that this event happened at some family restaurant I don't even remember the name of…"

Chihiro laughed.

"There it is…" she indicated to him, "I was just waiting till your otaku persona would show itself…"

Still, there was nothing malicious about that laugh… it was almost as if she was happy that it came up. With a fond smile, she grabbed her pen off her lap and put it to the slightly crumpled post-it.

"Note to self: when I confess to Katsuragi for real, it has to be on the Akanemaru…" she giggled. Keima was more pleased that she used 'when', instead of 'if'.

Things were going to go alright for them…

"But in that case, I'd like to make a comment as well…" Chihiro brought up a finger, "it's about the way you hold hands…"

Keima raised an eyebrow… what criticism could she have on something as simple as hand holding?

"What of it?" he asked. Chihiro brought her closed hand to her mouth thoughtfully as she thought of how to phrase it.

"Well…" she paused, "you always grab the wrong hand…"

"The wrong hand?"

"Yeah… you're supposed to grab the other hand…" Chihiro shrugged, "like if you're using your right hand, you need to hold onto my left hand…"

"Oh…" Keima held up his right hand, trying to remember which hand he'd held onto just now. Suddenly she grabbed onto it. As he followed down her arm, he noticed that it was her right hand as well.

"See, this is not hand holding," she adjusted her hands slightly, "this is a hand shake…"

True to her words, their hands were positioned in a classic hand shake, which she then shook jovially. Had he not had a good grip, her hand would have slipped from his.

"What, did we just sign an agreement?" Keima asked.

"Ya bet," Chihiro said with a laugh, "I'd say we've reached an agreement now."

"Yeah…" Keima put more weight in his hand to stop her from shaking it anymore. Suddenly, the mood changed a little.

Chihiro remembered holding his hand a few times… when they had been chasing after Ayumi while invisible… when Keima was dragging her to his house to protect her… even now as she shook her hand how a little kid would do to their father…

Still, her ultimate favourite was that time she slid her fingers into his before they went up to the roof… true, her hand sweated like crazy, and there were no words on how awkward and uncertain she had been… then, and even now, he held on with a determined resolve.

This time, he wouldn't mess this up.

"I'll be in your care then," he said softly. Chihiro broke eye contact.

"Yeah, I'll be in your care…"

Chihiro had held hands with other people, but she had never forgotten that warmth, even after all that time it had disappeared.

* * *

From the next booth, a menu was propped up on the table, and other than the small legs that could be seen underneath the table, she was pretty much out of view, especially to the two adults who she was listening on with a smile.

"Nii-san did it properly," she spoke with a smile as she coloured in her castle picture from her colouring book.

Her parents, who were in the seats opposite her, looked up over their own menus.

"What was that, Erika?" her father asked. She picked up the menu and laid it on top of her head.

"Can I have milkshake?" Erika asked, her fluffy pigtails bobbing in excitement. Of course, no one could say no to that.

* * *

 **Did... I just have them start a relationship? That did not happen in any of the drafts of this chapter at all...**

 **I'll admit that this wasn't even my idea. Day before yesterday, I found this really nice eyelis song called "Kagayaki no Kakera", and after that I discovered the lyrics were written by frickin' TAMIKI WAKAKI! Because he was the one who wrote this manga, I couldn't rest until I at least had a rough translation on it, and I was so super amped to find that it actually could work for Chihiro in this story.**

 **I know that he didn't intend for it to be used like that, but I was so excited that I just put that song on loop for most of the weekend and just wrote about how it made me feel, and honestly, I'm pretty happy about the result. It didn't even throw off my original planning for the rest of the story.**

 **In any case, I'll try and keep this momentum going. Once I've done this, I'll go and continue writing the next chapter.**

 **Review Time:**

 **Qruis- Yay for your achievement... though I kinda messed it up for disappearing for six months, so sorry about that.**

 **Though actually, Chihiro has the most amount of stories on this site, I think... but I get ya. I will try my hardest to give this the best ending that I can...**

 **xellos540- honestly, this chapter was actually supposed to cover what Keima's mission entailed, but then I somehow went down this route... which turned out to be 'Chihiro thinking alone', followed by... well, you saw...**

 **Though from next chapter onwards, the story will kick into full gear, and you'll get to find out the general direction this story is gonna go. Hopefully you'll like it.**

 **Also, your last thought is totally coming in play in this story. I have no clue how, but I will make that happen!**

 **Aika- thanks for the short and sweet messages. Sorry this updating is taking so long, but I'll try my best. Next time should hopefully be a lot closer than six months.**

 **Shawn Raven- I've decided to be nice and not end on a cliffhanger... but if I got you excited for this story again, I think every chapter ending is a cliffhanger.**

 **But yeah, all the hosts will show some kind of supernatural abilities... of course, as they come in, there'll be more interesting shenanigans to follow.**

 **Though Chihiro took a lesson in honestly... from herself, none the less. In any case, that should put an end to the worst of her stubbornness, coz hell, she is stubborn!**

 **EXPERIMENT 2.0- I totally spoiled the manga for you. Wow, sorry...**

 **I don't remember when exactly, but it was near the end of the Jupiter arc, when Dokuro says goodbye to Keima in the past... again, I'm sorry I spoiled that for you**

 **sparkly-refreshing14- well, I guess now... though I'm so sorry, because that review was older than 2 months by this point.**

 **Laialot Siedenumi- Thanks... I especially don't deserve it after making ya'll wait six months for a fricking update... I'll try my hardest to be more on top of this story now.**

 **Also, between the time of my last chapter and this one, I got a few new story followers, and I'm really grateful. Thanks, you guys. It's always nice to see your emails telling me that I still do something in this world. I'll try to make more time for writing.**

 **Though on a completely different note, I haven't been completely cut off from writing these last few months, but rather, I've been writing this fanfiction I haven't posted yet, because it's also a multi-chapter one, and I'm nowhere near finishing...**

 **God, what is wrong with me? I already have two ongoing stories!**

 **But in any case, I'm about 7 or 8 chapters in, and even though it takes forever to update my other stories, it is still content that I feel proud of and I'd want to share, if people are interested in it.**

 **I know why I wrote it though... I really just wanted something that was a traditional romantic comedy, and it has some of the greatest Chihiro and Keima interactions that I've written... and unlike the rest of my stories, there is no supernatural elements at all...**

 **So this story is called 'Overboard'...**

 _Chihiro is normal... her confessing habit may be pushing the line... then she completely fell over edge when confessing to Otamega, the Grade A Nerd Extraordinaire._

 _Keima is normal (for an otaku)... him trying to convince that Real that games were helpful in real romances may have been pushing the lines... him actually trying to prove it is completely nuts!_

 _Two teens enter an outrageous bet, armed only with their wits and their favourite pastimes, to try to push the limits of their popularity and get a date, while making sure that the other can't hold onto theirs..._

 _The whole story goes way too far, but isn't that the best way to spend your youth?_

 **Yeah, it's pretty much insane, but it has been lots of fun to write, and if you're fond of character development and Keima's interactions with the other second year girls, I think you'll like this.**

 **In any case, if you are curious about this premise, I've put a poll on my account, so if you want me to start posting it up, be sure to vote, or just tell me in your reviews.**

 **Bye bye**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey all... I'm earlier than usual, but it's probably about time I was...**

 **In any case, here's chapter 12... honestly, I both love and hate this chapter... I loved how it turned out, but I hate the fact that I took a detour and didn't get to where I needed to... Still, I should definitely get there next chapter, so I apologize.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter**

* * *

"I remember this address…" Keima glanced at the apartment number, "you gave me this address yesterday. Isn't this Ayumi's place?"

"Yeah, hers and mine," Chihiro corrected while slipping the door key in, "I asked Ayumi to come home early, so she'll be here soon…"

It wasn't necessary however, because the door wasn't locked with the key. One push told her that the chain bolt was on.

"Okay, she'd already here," Chihiro amended, before manoeuvring her left hand through the small gap. After a few moments of fidgeting, she opened the door. Keima just watched with a raised eyebrow.

"Isn't that lock supposed to stop people from doing that?" He asked. Chihiro shrugged.

"The locks here are kinda crappy. I figured how to get around the chain about three weeks into the year…" Keima felt the sides of his mouth turn up at the crafty look on her face.

"You are really… something…" he commented. Chihiro didn't really care to categorise it into an insult or a compliment, because she had better stuff to think about.

"I am… now keep quiet… let's scare Ayumi…" she tiptoed into the room. Keima, while incredulous at the whole thing, walked in. His natural gait was silent, so it didn't make a difference.

It didn't take long to find Ayumi in the living room, watching TV. That made Chihiro's plan a lot easier to put into action. Outside the room, Chihiro nudged him to speak, before moving a bit further from the door, her hand on her mouth to stop herself from snickering.

"Yo..." Keima greeted. Ayumi yelped, and by the sound of it, she knocked her glass of whatever on the table.

"Wahahaha!" Chihiro laughed herself into the room, where Ayumi was cowering behind the table. Luckily, her glass had been empty, and it had just fallen over when she jumped, "man, if you could just see your face…"

"Oh, you're here as well…" a somewhat unfamiliar voice came from behind Chihiro's ear. The normal girl scrambled forward, suddenly alarmed.

Now it was Ayumi's turn to laugh raucously at her friend and flatmate.

"You're right… if it was anywhere as funny as yours, I would have loved to see it," she grinned, "serves you right…"

"Eeeh!"

Keima's eyes drifted back to the person who'd spoken. Clearly, they were a guest of Ayumi's which Chihiro hadn't been expecting.

However, glancing into the slightly less lit up area outside the room, he noted the mouse-brown male who was walking toward them. As he stepped into the room, Keima realised that he knew that guy as well.

"Y-yuuta-kun?" Keima's eyes widened. What the hell was he doing here?

"So you know him, Katsuragi?" Ayumi replied. This was the first time she'd ever seen him acknowledge any male.

"Wow, that's surprising… I assumed all the people Katsuragi knew were affiliated with his games…" Chihiro straightened up, "so that's what your name is…"

"Eh, isn't he your friend?" Ayumi stood up.

"No… he said he's yours," Chihiro replied. Keima glanced between the three people, annoyed at why he had no idea what was happening. It was about time he got some exposition on why the hell Chihiro's old crush was waiting in her corridor.

"Umm… can someone tell me why Yuuta-kun is in this story?" Keima poked his thumb toward the boy, who was now subtly moving backward towards the door. Chihiro's eyes narrowed at that sight. She gave a glance to Ayumi, who also had the same determined look. She nodded once in agreement.

"Katsuragi, can you grab a hold of him so he doesn't leave…"

At that point, Yuuta made a break for it, knowing the gig was up. He was certain he could outrun that other guy anyway.

What he did not expect was Keima to be at the door already. The bespectacled guy held onto his arm with a surprisingly firm grip.

"Dude, it's just sugar!" he yelled as Keima dragged him back to the room. Both Chihiro and Ayumi were seated, with evil looks on their faces.

Keima seriously wondered what Yuuta could have done to earn their ire… even if he did feel bad for the guy; he had a lot more reason to want to stay in Chihiro's good books.

"So… Yuuta-kun, was it?" Chihiro was the first one to speak, "can you remind us which one of us you are you friends with?"

He looked at both girls, who seemed to have no mercy on their mind. His face started dripping with sweat.

"The… the other one?" he answered uncertainly. Surprisingly, Chihiro seemed placated by the answer.

"Oh, you mean our third flatmate?" she brightened up. Ayumi nodded as well. Yuuta started to look a bit relieved.

"Yeah, her…" Chihiro brought down her hand noisily, making Yuuta jump again.

"We don't have a third flatmate!" she yelled, and Yuuta cowered, before quickly lowering into a dogeza position.

Keima had to hide a laugh. Chihiro was really vindictive when she wanted to be… not that he disliked that quality in her.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he lifted and lowered his head with each apology, "It was Yamazaki's idea, not mine… spare me!"

"Look, before you do anything, can someone explain what heinous crime this guy was responsible for?" Keima asked cautiously. Chihiro seemed more interested in glaring down the guy every time he glanced up to see whether he was forgiven, so Ayumi did the honours.

"This guy and his roommate are too lazy to go grocery shopping, so they come here and ask for our stuff, pretending that they're friends with one of us, and that they just came to borrow some."

"By the way, you guys have never paid us nor given us anything back…" Chihiro reminded Yuuta, causing the guy to shrink down further.

"I-if you ran out and came to us, we would have given you some…" Yuuta replied in a small voice

"No you wouldn't… BECAUSE YOU'D BE OUT OF BLOODY STUFF AS WELL!" Chihiro shouted back. Keima found himself rolling his eyes at this absurd scene.

"Yuuta-kun, just shut up and take your punishment…" Keima spoke. Chihiro looked up for the first time since she started giving Yuuta hell.

"Come to think of it, how do you know Yuuta?" Chihiro's head tilted to the side… She knew this guy lived two rooms down, but Katsuragi…

Keima was at a loss on how to tell her that he actually learnt about him through her conquest…

Yuuta (Keima still didn't know his first name) was the only male he ever had to look through with his conquest lens, and even that was so he could get the loose spirit out of Chihiro, who had had a crush on him. He still remembered his parameters.

Description: 5'8" and thin with brown eyes and light brown hair

Class: 2-C (in their second year)

Likes: manga and basketball

Dislikes: Locker rooms and bullies

He suddenly chortled at that thought… not only was Chihiro a good five inches shorter than him, but now she's bullying the shit out of him…

"He was in our school, remember?" Keima reminded them.

"What high school did you go to!?" Chihiro asked harshly.

"Maijima Academy…" Yuuta answered. So Keima had been right about that.

"He was in 2-C…" Keima added. Chihiro figured she'd made her point by now, so she returned back to her seat. Besides, Keima had introduced a much more interesting topic now.

"Eh, then I guess you studied next door to us for at least a whole year…" Chihiro held her hand out, "Kosaka Chihiro…"

Yuuta looked at it cautiously, like she was going to do some kind of wrestling move on him if he shook it.

"Chihiro, are you done lecturing him?" Ayumi asked, figuring that was why he was holding back.

"Yeah, for now," she gave him a stern look, "I still want payment for all the milk, sugar, coffee and other crap you've taken from us…"

Yuuta-kun reached for his back pocket to pull out his wallet, before Chihiro stopped him.

"How about we deal with that later, and you join the mini school reunion for now," she offered her hand out again, this time with a smile. He figured it was in his best interest to play along.

"Well, you know I'm Yuuta," he shook her hand, before turning to Ayumi, "You're Takahara, right?"

Ayumi nodded. Yuuta pulled a face.

"How the hell did I forget you? The basketball club used to talk about you so much…"

For the first time since Keima had entered, he actually noted Ayumi's appearance. Her hair hadn't grown much, but she'd left the head band, and the spikier part of her hair had calmed down a little, giving her a more mature look, somewhat different from the look she sported in school.

Yuuta turned to Keima, who responded before he asked anything.

"Katsuragi Keima," Keima nodded, "you may have known me as Otamega…"

"Oh yeah… you dated Nakagawa Kanon," he remembered bluntly. The air suddenly became colder from Ayumi's side, while Chihiro watched with a blank face.

Keima could see the tension that sentence had brought on, so he attempted to diffuse it.

"No way," he flapped his hand, "I'm just an Otamega… those were rumours that blew out of proportion."

"Really?" one of Yuuta's eyebrows rose, "so she didn't confess to you during one of our exams?"

Ayumi's eyes fell into shadow. Even if Keima hadn't given her a look, Chihiro knew that he needed to talk to Ayumi alone.

She was near certain that the coldness in the room didn't have to do will the chilly October air.

Before she could say a word, Yuuta's phone rang.

"I should get that…" he spoke. While Chihiro couldn't be certain, but she swore he seemed relieved at the opportunity to leave the room. She should probably leave as well.

"I'll go get us drinks," Chihiro gave Keima a nod before leaving. With any luck, Keima wouldn't have forgotten his promise to Ayumi. Yuuta was on his phone, sitting on one of the stools in front of the kitchen counters.

As soon as he saw her enter, he stood up to leave, before Chihiro motioned him to stay seated. She pulled some glasses from the cabinet and set them on the counter in front of her.

"Why do I have to do this?"

Chihiro started pouring some ice tea into them, as Yuuta chortled.

"You shouldn't say that about your friends, Nii-chan… look, fine, I'll see if I can find someone… for maths, right?"

There was a moment of silence as the person on the other side spoke.

"I got it, they should be a girl, okay… can I go now? I'm at a friend's place…"

Chihiro gave him a raised eyebrow… friend?

Well, if he wanted that so much…

"Yuuta, pass the bong here!" Chihiro called, a cat smile coming on her face. As she expected, Yuuta gave her a dirty look.

"Nii-chan, obviously that was a joke!" another pause, "I did not come to university to do drugs!"

"No, I am not with a girl!" he yelled. Chihiro's smile only got broader at that.

"I'm going now! Bye!" he cut the call, and Chihiro started snickering.

"How old are you, even?" Yuuta shot at her.

"Physically, 21… Mentally, probably 12…" she pushed a glass to him, "consider that payback for the last month of you stealing our crap…"

"Nah, I'll still pay you back," Yuuta stretched in his seat, "so… Kosaka, was it?"

Chihiro nodded, grabbing her own glass grabbing the seat next to Yuuta.

"Did I say something wrong while I was in there?" he indicated to the general location of where they were in before.

"Not really…" Chihiro took a sip, "those two were due to have a talk for a long time, so it was going to happen sooner or later…"

"So… I guess we wait here?" he said after a small pause.

"I guess we do…"

On the other side of the flat, Keima was watching Ayumi nervously. He knew Yuuta inadvertently bringing up the Goddesses had a negative reaction on her, but he couldn't quite explain what the reaction was… or what part rubbed against her.

"Ayumi?"

"If you're here to talk about what happened before, please stop…" she said simply. All Keima could detect was the tiredness behind it.

"Didn't you say you wanted answers?" Keima pressed on. Ayumi shot him an irritated look.

"Do you read forums?" she asked randomly.

"Huh?"

"I'm trying to put this in terms you'll understand… so do you ever go on forums… for your games, or whatever?"

For the life of him, Keima couldn't understand what she was getting at.

"Yeah, sometimes…" he replied cautiously.

"Then how would you feel if someone revived a four year old conversation of yours?" she shot. Keima's eyebrows furrowed. So she didn't want him to keep his promise of telling her everything?

But it wasn't like he could avoid it. Dokuro's entire plan revolved around removing the Goddesses, and the only starting point Keima had is to gather information about the girls.

"So what do you want, Ayumi?" he asked.

"I want this whole Goddess business to end already!" she yelled, loud enough that Chihiro would need to make some kind of excuse to Yuuta.

"Perfect," Keima pushed up his glasses, "then I believe I came at the right time."

Honestly, that wasn't how he would have wanted to say it, but saying that he was a godsend would probably get him beat up, and he wasn't used to Ayumi's kicks anymore.

"Wasn't this due a long time ago?" she rightfully asked, but Keima ignored it.

"Actually, I have a gift for you…" he spoke, digging into his pocket, "I believe this will take us to the end…"

From his pocket, he brought out the old-fashioned watch Dokuro had given him yesterday. Ayumi took one look at it.

"Nope," she rejected it. Keima's face fell.

"How can you say that before you even know what it does?"

"Fine, what does it do!?"

"It's supposed t-"

"Geez, shut up!" Ayumi interrupted, her hands going into her hair with obvious frustration, "this isn't supposed to be how this conversation goes!"

Keima, who'd been bracing himself for some kind of kick under the table as soon as he'd been interrupted, opened his eyes. She didn't hit him at all.

Clearly, he wasn't getting anywhere like this… maybe he should just let her set the pace, and interject his information when the opportunity came up.

There was still the fact that he was missing a lot of information on his side as well… Dokuro had given him the watches, but other than the small hand moving and the Goddess-Human power ratio being shown on it, he didn't know much…

Like what made it move… or what kind of powers the hosts had… or how the watch found out how the power distribution within the host's body…

No, he should let her begin. He set the watch down on the table.

"Okay, that's fair enough…" he spoke calmly, "how do you want to go about this?"

"How about you tell me about what you're doing now?"

"Well, the plan is-"

"Not the plan! Like are you studying or working now?"

Keima's eyebrow rose up… that didn't have much to do with anything… suddenly, a wave of understanding hit him, followed by a pang of guilt.

He'd been going at it like his conquests, skipping out on the small talk and jumping straight to the exposition and information gathering… he'd even said that he'd considered the hosts to be his friends, but it was Ayumi reminding him that he had to act like one…

While he knew he lived in the real world, he sometimes needed a kickstart in remembering that people had a past, present and future, and that no one's lives revolved around him, so he'd have to ask to get answers.

"I'm working," Keima nodded slightly, "I'm a scenario writer and beta tester to a few different game companies," Ayumi groaned at the obviousness of that. He couldn't help but notice that Chihiro had had the exact same reaction to hearing about his job.

"How about you?" he added. He was curious about her answer, considering that it would give some more insight into Ayumi's character as she was now, and because he wanted to know where she was shining now. She seemed to be a bit more cheerful following that.

"I'm a Phys Ed teacher at one of the Elementary Schools around here… and I'm studying for an Education degree part time…"

"Oh…" Keima wasn't sure what else to say. Ayumi was pretty outgoing and friendly, so it was a fitting career choice for her… also, she'd get to share her passion for running with all her students. Keima could actually imagine her being a damn good teacher.

"How is that like?" he asked, genuinely curious. Her smile got bigger.

"It's the best… not only do I very rarely get marking, but I get to motivate children and teach them to enjoy sports…" she beamed, "and of course, there's a lot of great people, so I really do love it."

Keima nodded, now a little less on edge, now that Ayumi was in a better mood. He should keep this up and find out a bit more.

"What about the 2B Pencils… do you girls still play?"

Ayumi's face faltered for a second. She shrugged.

"We played until the end of high school… but with all of us going our separate ways and Miyako being all the way in Tokyo, we decided to call it quits then…" she said in a slightly sadder sounding voice, "but we're not completely done with music… Yui is still part of a band, and me and Chihiro always take our guitars when we go to karaoke."

Keima felt a little pang at that… while he was never particularly interested in music, he did sometimes attend their practices, and all of them were really passionate about it. It was a little sad to think that they gave up on that after two years of playing. Even Ayumi looked a bit glum at the thought.

"Do you miss playing in the band?" Keima asked sympathetically.

"It couldn't be helped," Ayumi sighed, "we had a good run at school, and we'd become pretty popular as well… it just sucks we couldn't go any further than that…"

Keima cringed a bit at the mention of being popular, but he moved the conversation along.

"Though how has Yu-"

"Actually, I have a question too…" Ayumi interjected, "why did you leave so suddenly?"

Keima froze. The change wasn't lost on Ayumi, but she definitely wanted an answer for that question. It had been eating at her for nearly four years now. She quickly glanced toward the door to make sure it was still closed.

"When you came back, you told all of us that you were going to confess to Chihiro… why didn't you then?"

Keima cleared his throat, but the heaviness that was starting to weigh there didn't disappear. That memory wasn't going to leave as easily as that.

"It was just something I decided," he spoke firmly, "so how has Yui been doing lately?" Ayumi's eyes narrowed at that unsatisfactory answer.

"Then you're a bloody coward," she glared, "'If you have someone you like, go ahead and confess!'"

While those words were said a lot more spite than the original speaker, the memory hit him like a tonne of bricks. The sight of Chihiro, right hand up in a 'V sign', with a cheerful smile that probably didn't go to her eyes, considering they were squeezed shut… the kind of smiles she sported while the loose spirit occupied the gap in her heart.

"All of us girls gathered that courage and told you, so why couldn't you?" Ayumi finished, the question piercing his heart like an arrow. With his voice and his resolve wavering, he started speaking.

"I learnt something that day…"

 _Keima couldn't help it… his fingers kept drifting to his neck, which, after eight months, was finally collarless… he'd done it… the contract was finally over._

 _The question that remained now was where he would go from here… he'd already played with some of his consoles and he had his PFP out, but the usual comfort he got from them was overshadowed by_ _his_ _anxiousness as he approached_ _his impending destination, Chihiro's house…_

 _After all this was over_ _, Keima had a few questions of his own that he wanted answered_ _…_ _like whether a memory wipe would be possible at this time_ _…_ _like whether his life could return to the point it was before he replied to the contract email_ _…_ _like whether he actually wanted to return to that time_ _…_

 _Keima would be lying if he said he hadn_ _'_ _t changed during the last eight months_ _…_ _it was part of the job description, after all: boy meets troubled girl_ _…_ _boy discovers what_ _'_ _s troubling them_ _…_ _boy helps girl_ _…_ _girl falls in love with boy_ _…_ _girl forgets boy_ _…_ _boy watches from afar as girl moves on with her life_ _…_

 _Keima never fell in love with any of the girls, considering the memory wipe_ _…_ _but he couldn_ _'_ _t deny the fondness he did feel toward watching them grow and aim for a goal that had nothing to do with him. They were different from his 2D Heroines, considering that code limited them to staying in his orbit_ _…_

 _R_ _eal girls made their own decisions_ _…_ _found their own passions_ _…_ _were the protagonist to their own game_ _…_ _if anything, he gained a lot of respect for those girls who struggled, and still continue to struggle, for what they wanted_ _…_

 _And Chihiro_ _…_ _she wanted him._

 _Keima, for the life of him, could not put a word to what he felt towards that girl_ _._ _She was too noisy to be an NPC, made too many events to be a mob character, but her involvement and events were so subtle that there was no way she could be a main heroine_ _…_ _there were no game terms that could begin to describe her._

 _Real life terms weren_ _'_ _t any better. He knew too much about her to just consider her a classmate. They conversed too much to be considered acquaintances. They bickered way too much to be friends, but those small moments of kindness stopped her from falling onto enemy territory._

 _Then she confessed that she loved him, blowing all those words into space. While he struggled to find words to find their relationship, she struggled to change their relationship to the word she wanted._

 _Even now, Keima was uncertain what he felt about her_ _…_ _he respected her fierce_ _independence_ _and her sharp tongue_ _…_ _he_ _'_ _d felt the butterflies when she held onto his hand_ _…_ _against his own will, he wanted to know why she loved him_ _…_ _he wished he knew why he had been curious about that, or why he sat there, listening to her on the sidelines, instead of returning to the fray of the battle to find the Goddesses._

 _The real life love that Chihiro had admitted to was different than what he_ _'_ _d experienced in games; it was a lot less magical, it took no consideration for timing, it came out of nowhere, and it ultimately hurt her._

 _Loving without needing a reason didn_ _'_ _t make any sense to him_ _…_ _he had reasons for feeling differently toward her_ _…_ _so did it mean he_ _didn't_ _love her?_

 _He wanted answers, but somehow, he expected they lay with her, which was why he was going to get to the bottom of this now._

 _A deep feeling of dread settled into his stomach as soon as her house came into sight, not unlike the time when him, Chihiro and Ayumi were nearly captured by Vintage._

 _He couldn_ _'_ _t understand why he was so scared_ _…_ _it wasn_ _'_ _t Vintage whose door he_ _'_ _d be knocking on_ _…_ _it was a girl_ _…_

" _I_ _'_ _m the God of Conquest,_ _"_ _he reminded himself out loud,_ _"_ _I_ _'_ _m the God of Conquest_ _…"_

 _Yeah, why was he so scared? Talking to girls was the thing Keima did best_ _…_

" _You_ _'_ _re the God of Conquest?_ _"_ _A male voice asked behind him, making Keima jump,_ _"_ _you_ _'_ _re the Fallen God from the website, right?_ _"_

 _Keima_ _'_ _s eyes widened. This was the first time anyone had mentioned his small website to him in a while_ _…_ _aside from Elsie_ _…_ _Eri?_

" _What of it?_ _"_ _Keima frowned,_ _"_ _I_ _'_ _m not getting myself involved in the industry_ _…"_

(Keima scoffed… so much for that…)

" _No,_ _"_ _the boy shook his arms furiously. Now that Keima got a good look at him, he was a nondescript high school student from the public school a few dozen blocks away from here,_ _"_ _I_ _'_ _m not involved in anything_ _…_ _I just wanted to ask you a few questions_ _…"_

 _Keima felt himself shrug, but his_ _eyes were following the name plate on Chihiro'_ _s house_ _…_ _his stomach did mad flips, which he tried to not let show in his voice._

" _Okay, what is it?_ _"_

" _I want to know_ _…_ _can galge help you with real life romances?_ _"_ _the boy scratched his head nervously,_ _"_ _there_ _'_ _s a girl I like, and I want to ask her out_ _…"_

 _Keima_ _'_ _s eyes darkened and he stopped walking_ _…_ _this was what got him into this shit in the first place._

" _Don_ _'_ _t assume games and real life to be the same,_ _"_ _Keima said so softly that the boy nearly missed it,_ _"_ _galge work to a certain point, then they start hurting your progress_ _…"_

" _So that_ _'_ _s a no_ _…"_ _the boy concluded_ _, paying no mind to Keima'_ _s sudden mood change,_ _"_ _that_ _'_ _s a bummer_ _…"_

 _Keima continued walking_ _…_ _even if he wanted to talk to Chihiro, he knew he couldn_ _'_ _t do it with that face._

" _Trust the Fallen God to know about this_ _…"_ _the boy spoke cheerfully, pulling his phone from his pocket,_ _"_ _have you ever liked a real girl, Kami-sama?_ _"_

 _That was the question, wasn_ _'_ _t it?_

" _Can_ _'_ _t say,_ _"_ _Keima said with a shrug,_ _"_ _there_ _'_ _s a difference with_ _'_ _like_ _'_ _in games and_ _'_ _like_ _'_ _in real life, and I don_ _'_ _t know what it is_ _…"_ _The boy suddenly got excited._

" _I was reading up on it on the internet_ _..."_ _he pulled out his phone again,_ _"_ _apparently being in love is supposed to be one of the most beautiful thing in the world_ _…_ _like everything changes, and all their flaws become things you appreciate about them, and it takes forever to fall out of love with them_ _…"_ _he seemingly scrolled down,_ _"_ _oh, and their happiness becomes your biggest priority_ _…"_

 _Keima, despite his apprehension at this weirdly talkative boy, listened to his words_ _…_ _he started an internal checklist on Chihiro._

 _Beautiful- while he didn_ _'_ _t have much to think about that, he definitely considered those tears to be that_ _…_

 _Everything changes- more toward the annoying, but yeah_ _…_

 _Appreciating flaws- heck, he_ _'_ _d been doing that from the first time he kissed her_ _…_ _who admires someone_ _'_ _s skill to bring down a person with words?_

 _He hadn_ _'_ _t thought of the last two points, but just being able to tick off 3 out of 5 points with minimal thought_ _…_ _maybe it was love?_

 _Keima suddenly felt himself become frantic. What about Chihiro_ _'_ _s point?_

" _Do you need a reason to love?_ _"_ _Keima shot at the boy. The boy gave him a concerned look._

" _I don_ _'_ _t know,_ _"_ _he straightened his tie,_ _"_ _maybe you don_ _'_ _t need a reason, but you_ _'_ _ll still find a lot of them anyway_ _…"_

 _Keima_ _'_ _s eyes widened_ _…_ _this boy had bridged Chihiro_ _'_ _s logic to his_ _…_ _he really was in love with her._

" _I have to go,_ _"_ _Keima turned around._

" _Kami-sama, please help me before you go_ _…"_ _the boy called. Keima fell back._

" _Oh yes, you needed some help with a real life conquest,_ _"_ _Keima stopped. The boy gave him a confused look._

" _Isn_ _'_ _t it only called a_ _'_ _Conquest_ _'_ _when it refers to galge?_ _"_ _the boy shrugged, not realising the spear of guilt he_ _'_ _d inadvertently thrown at Keima with that question,_ _"_ _never mind about that_ _…_ _so I have this girl I like, and I want to confess to her. What should I say to her?_ _"_

" _What do you know about her?_ _"_ _Keima asked. The boy_ _'_ _s forehead scrunched as he thought about it._

" _Umm_ _…_ _she_ _'_ _s from your school_ _…"_ _he indicated to Keima_ _'_ _s uniform,_ _"_ _I met her at the Mai High Fest, and got her email_ _…_ _she_ _plays guitar for her band…_ _she says she hates loud alarms, so she always puts it at the lowest volume, then sleeps through them by mistake_ _…_ _she mentioned a little brother in one of our conversations as well_ _…"_

 _Keima felt his stomach sinking slightly._

" _Oh, I have a picture of her as well_ _…"_ _the boy quickly pulled up a picture. Keima barely had to glance down to see that he was very well acquainted with her,_ _"_ _oh, and last night, she was telling me about her favourite meat bun_ _…"_

 _Keima felt his stomach sink to the floor_ _…_ _this guy, who_ _'_ _d met Chihiro one week ago, had even more information about her than Keima picked up in seven months of interacting with her_ _…_ _and even now, he was using those kinds of words_ _…_

 _As much as it hurt him, Keima had to put his foot down._

" _Look_ _…_ _umm_ _…"_

" _Ishigami,_ _"_ _the boy interjected,_ _"_ _that_ _'_ _s my name_ _…_ _Hiroyuki Ishigami_ _…"_

" _Then, Ishigami-kun_ _…"_ _Keima put his hands in his pocket,_ _"_ _were you up late talking to Ch-Kosaka?_ _"_

" _You know Kosaka-san?_ _"_ _Hiroyuki_ _'_ _s eyes widened. He hadn_ _'_ _t mentioned her name at all._

" _Answer the question,_ _"_ _Keima tried to say, as detached as he possibly could._

" _Y-yeah_ _…_ _I stopped talking to her this morning_ _…"_

 _Keima pulled his PFP, glancing at the time_ _…_ _it was half an hour before school was due to start._

" _I have an idea for you then,_ _"_ _Keima held out a hand,_ _"_ _can I have your phone?_ _"_

 _The confused boy handed it over. Once Keima got used to the buttons, he typed in a quick email into the phone and passed it back._

" _Put in Kosaka_ _'_ _s email address and come with me,_ _"_ _Keima ordered, before briskly walking back to Chihiro_ _'_ _s house. It was a lot easier to approach it now._

" _Nee, what are you doing, Kami-sama?_ _"_ _Keima turned around and shushed him._

 _The problem started there…_ _it was a double storey house, so he was forced to circle the perimeter. Only the front terrace had its blinds drawn, so Keima was certain that was her room._ _H_ _e picked up a few smaller gravel pieces from the drive._

" _Send it,_ _"_ _he whispered. When he heard the beep, he threw them onto the terrace with all of his strength_ _…_ _majority of them rained in front of the door, but a few reached the door, creating enough of a racket to wake Chihiro up. He backed away toward the still bewildered boy._

" _Best of luck, Ishigami-kun_ _…_ _if anyone asks, I wasn_ _'_ _t here_ _…"_

 _And he split, only stopping when he was far enough and behind a tree. He begged himself to not glance back at the house, but his heart got the upper hand against his brain, and he looked back._

 _Chihiro clambered onto the terrace, clad in green pyjamas and bleary-eyed_ _…_ _then she noticed the boy waiting by her gate, and she turned red, running back into the house. Keima smiled at the sight._

 _This would probably be the last time he saw her for a while, but he was weirdly okay with that_ _…_

' _Her happiness, huh?_ _'_ _he repeated as he put his hands in his pocket._

" _I hope you_ _'_ _re happy, Idiot,_ _"_ _Keima said with a smile, walking away. He was certain Ishigami would do a better job anyway._

"Despite all we'd been though, I never was that close to Chihiro… I figured it would be alright to help Ishigami, and then I left…"

He glanced up, suddenly surprised that Ayumi was towering over him, given he was seated, and she'd gotten up at some time during his story.

"W-what kind of reason is that!?" Ayumi yelled. Keima noticed the slightest hint of tears in her eyes.

"It was what I decided…" Keima looked up, his eyes firm, "I stepped down… it wasn't a matter of cowardice that stopped me from speaking…"

"Yes it was!" Ayumi grabbed him by the shirt, hoisting him up, "you loved her, but you didn't want to get hurt, so you ran away… how is that not cowardice?"

Ayumi let go, where Keima fell to the wooden floor noisily. Both of them glanced to the door, remembering that Chihiro and Yuuta were in this house right now. After a moment, there were no sounds of approaching footsteps.

"No… if you were brave, you would have stayed and let Chihiro make the choice…" Ayumi hissed, but the anger fizzled out and the tears became more obvious, "she would have picked you…"

Her voice broke at the end as she started crying in earnest.

Keima knew he should comfort her, but her words were starting to settle into his heart, weighing it down to the ground. He lifted his hand and stroked Ayumi's hair, hoping it would make her feel a bit better…

Besides, Chihiro had picked him now, right?

Chihiro could feel her grip tightening on the glass, turning her knuckles white. When her grip refused to loosen, she forced herself up and went back to the kitchen, now completely empty, because she'd let Yuuta go home… Being away from the tense atmosphere helped her loosen up, but it didn't make her feel significantly better at all, considering what she'd heard.

She quickly brought out her phone, opening her email and searching for the name that she hadn't thought of for a good three years.

It only took a little digging to find the odd message out, being the only one Ishigami-kun ever sent her with a subject line

 **Subj: Wake up call**

 **Sorry for keeping you up late last night… I figured I should make up for it and surprise you awake…**

 **I love you…**

 **Now that you're up properly, I'll speak to you outside :)**

Chihiro shakily sat down on the stool she'd been sitting on before… Keima had sent her that… Keima had been outside her house… Keima had liked her since that day…

The urge to cry at realisation was intense, but Chihiro knew there wasn't any point. This happened four years ago, and they couldn't rewind back to that time. The milk was long since spilt, and all she could do was mop up the mess and never allow it to spill again.

Honestly, she couldn't be happier that they were dating now… this time, she wouldn't hurt him, nor would she let him hurt himself with any stupid stunts like that one.

* * *

 **Can I bring your attention to the fact that Chihiro cared more about Keima getting hurt than the fact that his disappearance hurt her too... that is someone who is actually trying to be serious about this relationship.**

 **That... was some real whiplash, jumping between Yuuta stealing their food and Keima explaining what made him leave... I really did like how the last part of this chapter turned out. I'd actually planned on continuing to the part where I wanted to go, but this felt like a better point to end for the meantime.**

 **Next up- the actual bloody plot of this story!**

 **I'll be back in a few days, either with this story or Overboard, which you guys have been pretty great about.**

 **Review Time:**

 **xellos540- I probably responded to most of the points by PM... but Eri colouring is a pretty adorable picture... but nah, that was the girl from first chapter... I'm pretty sure restaurants don't give adults colouring material to keep them quiet. They really should, though.**

 **Also, I see your point about the casualness of the waitress. I might change it at a later point, but for the meantime, it's fine.**

 **ala000p- Thanks. I hope you enjoyed this.**

 **Shawn Raven- Yo yo... indeed, Chihiro is a matured adult... it is very visible by her scaring the shit out of Ayumi and telling Yuuta to pass her the bong to get him in trouble on the phone.**

 **Also, I love your comment about the girl... I totally get what you're getting at, but I WILL NOT MENTION IT IN THIS REPLY EITHER. Feel free to daydream about it however much you want.**

 **EXPERIMENT 2.0- I'm so sorry. I'm just the kind of writer who disappears for a while and then comes back. I should have responded to your PM, but around that time, I was feeling so insanely guilty about not updating this that I decided I'd reply once I got over that guilt and started writing chapter 11.**

 **sparkly-refreshing14- thank you so much. I'll try to keep up with this story more in the future.**


	13. Chapter 13

**I did it! I finally completed this chapter, and it's 11600 words, excluding this author's note... God, this is gonna take forever to read as well.**

 **Here ya go... I updated it, and I updated it good!**

* * *

Chihiro gave Keima and Ayumi fifteen more minutes, hoping they would have reached some kind of equilibrium after that last conversation. She knocked on the door nervously.

"C-come in…" Ayumi's voice cracked as she replied. Even if Chihiro hadn't known her for forever, it was pretty clear that she still wasn't alright. The normal girl stepped in, balancing three glasses of ice tea on a tray.

"I brought something to drink," Chihiro announced nervously, indicating to the tray. Looking at Ayumi, she's been right… the girl's eyes and nose were pink, so she must have been crying before.

"Where did Yuuta-kun go?" Keima asked worriedly. Chihiro already knew about the situation and Ayumi wouldn't hate being seen like this by her, but Yuuta…

"I told him to go and buy his own damn groceries," Chihiro shrugged, "I wouldn't have come here if he wasn't gone…"

"Yeah, that was appreciated," Keima gave her a small smile, "maybe he'll stop coming here now…"

"Which reminds me, how do you even know that guy?" Chihiro laughed, "I've never seen you talk to, or talk about, any guy before…"

A hilarious thought came into Chihiro's head.

"Don't tell me… he was your gay lover…" Keima glared at her, not appreciating the humour at his expense.

"Obviously not!" Keima replied, clearly insulted, "I'm more surprised you don't know who your own neighbours are… especially the type that come to your house begging for food…"

"That doesn't answer my question, you know…" Chihiro eyed him suspiciously, "just say it…"

Ayumi watched the two of them trade casual words across the table, a slight feeling of unease settling on her. Keima, who had been having trouble with making small talk with her, seemed to be perfectly content about chatting about whatever with her friend. It wasn't jealousy, per se, but it definitely highlighted the difference in how he viewed them.

"You guys are getting along well," Ayumi noted glumly. Keima felt a growing feeling of dread that history might repeat itself. He braced himself for changing the topic back to where it had been going before Chihiro had stepped in. Keima cleared his throat.

"So how about that wa‒"

"Well, yeah… we are kinda going out…" Chihiro nonchalantly replied. Keima face faulted.

"You're going out!?" Ayumi slammed her palms on the table, "when did this happen!?"

"Quite recently…" Chihiro started admiring her nails, as if she was bored, "I was tired of constantly fighting with myself and this guy, so I just went for it…"

Keima climbed back up, his eyes falling on Chihiro. Despite the even tone she was using, her face was darkening. So she really wasn't as indifferent to telling Ayumi as she was acting…

Chihiro felt the hairs on her neck bristle as Ayumi joined with the staring.

"What's your problem even!? You have a boyfriend as well!" Chihiro snapped at her roommate, but that was more to hide her own embarrassment.

It took a moment for Keima to absorb that response despite it being an easy sentence. For one, that meant that Ayumi had moved on just fine… for another, Chihiro used 'as well'… this was the first time since he'd confessed that she used 'boyfriend' to describe what he was to her.

It wasn't a term used that often in games, but dammit, he was so happy that she used it. He was so happy that he confessed to Chihiro.

Both girls turned to look at Keima, who looked a tad dazed.

"Katsuragi…" Ayumi shook a hand in his face, "earth to Katsuragi…"

"Eh, he's pulling another weird face," Chihiro sighed, "he must be thinking of another game…"

Keima suddenly snapped out of it.

"Wait, you have a boyfriend?" Keima turned to Ayumi. The girl blushed at the sudden intensity of his gaze.

"Y-yeah… you weren't expecting me to wait for you or something, were you?" This, of course, was said with zero eye contact, "coz that would be nuts, especially when you've been holding a candle for Chihiro for the last four years…"

When Ayumi did look up at him, his eyes flashed as a warning.

He hadn't told Chihiro that little fact, had he?

They both turned to Chihiro, who had a thoughtful look on her face. Keima doubted she'd missed hearing it.

How would she even react to learning something like that?

"H-how about we get to the actual thing you came to discuss, Katsuragi…" Chihiro diverted. Keima felt himself relax slightly.

"I guess we should, huh…" he muttered. Despite the reprieve, he didn't know what to make of Chihiro brushing it off. Did she not want to think of the implications it would have on their relationship? Would it have any effect on their relationship even?

For a moment, Chihiro wondered why he wasn't continuing.

"You know… the watch… random super powers… Mel…"

"Oh… right," Keima shook his head, "did you understand what I'd been saying before?" he addressed Ayumi, who looked a little insulted.

"Of course… as things are now, both me and Mel are in danger if we stay together… so you have to separate us for our own good…"

Chihiro felt her heart beat a bit faster. While Keima wasn't lying, he definitely downplayed the details of what would happen, and it was making her nervous that Ayumi might pry for more information… or maybe that she wouldn't take Keima's threat seriously.

It had been Chihiro's idea in the first place… the details that Keima had given her if Ayumi didn't give up Mel were freakin' bleak and were more likely to make the host depressed instead of urging her to declare independence from her Goddess, which was why Chihiro was certain it was the right choice to withhold the worst of it.

But, on the reverse side, she was worried that the warning would become ineffective.

"Exactly… so with yours and Mercury's permission, I would like to gather information and find out how to separate the two of you…"

Again, it was half-truths… Chihiro knew that removing the Goddesses required magic power which Keima didn't have, so all the information gathering was to facilitate the means Nikaido-sensei (oh God, she was involved with this story too!) needed to separate the Goddess from their human body.

"But… can't Mel protect me from any danger that might come to us?"

Yeah, that is what Chihiro had been worried about… Keima frowned, before choosing his words carefully.

"Mercury's power is dissipating inside your body… she can't protect you if she is getting weaker."

Ayumi's eyes widened. Chihiro was the one to voice it, for Keima's sake as well as to confirm her roommate's suspicions…

"That day you froze the juice just walking between the fridge and the table… it was probably that."

Ayumi opened her mouth, but fell silent.

"So it is true?" Keima wondered out loud, "you are starting to gain magical powers of your own?"

Each statement felt less and less like a question. Ayumi didn't even say a word about those incidents, yet Keima trusted Chihiro enough to take her word on it.

Chihiro, who barely had a clue about what chaos those powers were causing in her life…

Ayumi loved Kyousuke with all her heart, but she could never tell him about this. Even if she could, he wouldn't be able to understand it or do anything about it.

Ayumi loved Chihiro with all her heart as well, but other than a brief mention of it, she couldn't tell her either. Chihiro was sympathetic, but in the end her knowledge on the magic world was probably on par with whatever Ayumi had gained from Mel.

That inkling of frustration only grew stronger as she thought about Keima's sudden reappearance and his relationship with Chihiro… why did it irritate her?

Maybe it was the level that they seemed to trust each other… maybe it was that they seemed to communicate without having to speak, somehow knowing when to hold their tongue and when to speak…

Probably, the thing that irritated Ayumi the most was that Keima was holding back something from her, and Chihiro knew what it was… it just gave her the feeling of being ganged up on, and it made the whole situation feel lonelier than ever.

Ayumi pulled herself up from the floor, downing her glass in one gulp.

"I'm getting a refill…" she said, her tone unreadable. Then she stepped out of the room. Keima was flabbergasted at the sudden change in Ayumi's mood. Even Chihiro was scratching her head at what Keima could have said to set Ayumi off.

"Was it something I said?" Keima asked tentatively. Chihiro had no clue whether to answer in the affirmative or not. She'd seen Ayumi react badly to words before, but it was never like this… this felt like it went deeper than words.

"I mentioned her powers, and then you asked her if it was true…" Chihiro tried to work out what might have flipped a switch. Neither of the statements was controversial or revealing… was it the way they came together?

"Chihiro…" Keima interrupted, "when Ayumi mentioned me liking you for four years, why didn't you react?"

The girl's eyes narrowed. Now wasn't the time f‒

Oh God, that was it, wasn't it? The subtle shifts in alliances after Chihiro admitted they were dating…

Ayumi noticed that Chihiro was rather guarding Keima's back, instead of being her ally.

"At the moment, finding what Ayumi thinks… feels about this it the more important priority… I'll answer your question when I know for a fact that Ayumi's okay…" Keima smiled slightly at the determined look on her face.

" _If you want to conquer Ayumi… fall in love with her for real!"_

Chihiro had told him that a long time ago, after she seemingly threw a bomb in the pool that was the Ayumi conquest... against Keima's own understanding of the situation, that bomb helped to clean the mud out of that pool and Keima could finally reach the ending… the ending with way too many twists and turns.

This time, Chihiro didn't really have to offer her help. For her, it was a given that Keima would struggle with the deeper, emotional aspects, and she'd be around to pick up the slack.

This time, Keima was grateful for the help… he was honestly happier writing game scenarios for other people than going right to the scene himself.

Chihiro found Ayumi in her room, no glass in sight. If it hadn't been plainly obvious before, it was clear that Ayumi just wanted out from the conversation with Keima.

"Yo," Chihiro greeted. Ayumi, who'd been on her bed, hugged her legs defensively, "you annoyed at Katsuragi again?"

Of course, with that kind of reaction, it was pretty clear that she wasn't cool with Chihiro either. The normal girl wasn't going to yield though.

Chihiro sat down at the foot of the bed, kind of like the way her parents used to do when she used to get grumpy.

"No…" Ayumi replied glumly, "it's about how you two are so chummy-chummy…" Chihiro felt herself smile. Trust her best friend to never mince words with her. Also, that confirmed her suspicions.

"I'm sorry…" Chihiro sighed, "We weren't trying to gang up on you. He explained to me what was happening earlier, so that's wh‒"

"Katsuragi isn't telling me the whole truth, is he?" Ayumi was looking at Chihiro straight, trying to look for any of her usual signs of lying.

Of course, Chihiro knew better than to lie. Ayumi knew her way too well to fall for anything she said.

Ayumi normally wasn't very perceptive. Chihiro guessed it probably had to do with how long she'd been watching Keima, since she had liked him as well.

"He does have a reason for it," Chihiro replied, "There are some gory consequences behi‒"

"Tell me what they are then!" Ayumi demanded.

Chihiro hesitated. When Ayumi noticed the reluctance on her roommates face, she spoke again.

"I plan on making my own decision on whatever Katsuragi's plan is, and you holding back on the details basically confirms that you're on his side…"

"Geez, Ayumi!" Chihiro eyes hardened, "if you really want to know so bad…"

She told her everything that Keima had told her on their date of sorts, now holding nothing back. She told her about what was giving her powers, and how long it would continue… she told her about the gap which would form in her heart after the Goddess disappeared, and what havoc would ensue following that.

Chihiro was pretty certain she got the point across properly, considering the shocked look on Ayumi's face when she was done.

"Well… uh…" Ayumi averted her eyes, "I can see why you wouldn't want to tell me that…"

Chihiro felt a sharp stab of guilt as Ayumi started to tear up. Even if Ayumi had poked a nerve in implying she was being a bad friend for holding back, she really should have put it in a nicer way.

"I'm sorry, Ayumi…" Chihiro hung her head.

"It's fine… I was the one who asked for it," Ayumi took a deep breath so the feeling of crying would go away, "I guess it doesn't leave me much of a choice though, given that staying with Mel will end up killing us…"

Chihiro cringed at the word. Being the bearer of bad news sucked.

"That guy… why didn't Katsuragi just come and apologize like he was supposed to?" she muttered out loud. Why did Nikaido have to get involved with this?

Still, it didn't change the reality of the situation. At least by this point, Katsuragi could do something about it, else they'd just be moving forward, not knowing they were heading to their doom.

Why did it even have to be this way?

"Apologize?" Ayumi's head tilted.

"Huh?" it took a moment for the question to register in Chihiro's head, "oh yeah, Katsuragi told me yesterday that he wanted to apologize about the way he treated you before, and somehow make it up to you…"

Then Nikaido came and blew that story to the background, it seems.

"Really? Because he hasn't mentioned a word about that yet…" Ayumi felt a small smile coming onto her face, "I guess he's still an arse…"

Chihiro chuckled as well. At least if Ayumi was focusing on how Keima was annoying her, she wouldn't dwell in the situation so much.

"He is, isn't he?" Chihiro agreed, but considering what had happened in the last 24 hours, they were empty words, "I'm sure he'll get down to them soon, anyway…"

"Yeah…" Ayumi pulled a face. Chihiro recognised it, because it was always the face she'd make before deciding something big. She stood up.

"Katsuragi is more open to hearing what you want, so maybe you should think about it, and I'll leave you to it," Ayumi's eyes narrowed, but not out of suspiciousness. In fact, the start of a smirk was coming onto her face.

"Oh no, you're not leaving yet," she sat up, patting the blanket next to her, "I'm not letting you leave until you tell me about you and Katsuragi."

Chihiro sighed.

"It's nothing that interesting… he confessed, and I accepted…"

"So… like how you've been accepting confessions since the Mai High Festival in second year…"

"No, it's not like that…" Chihiro corrected firmly, her composure finally slipping.

She'd been doing a pretty good job at keeping a straight face, turned a light pink, which Ayumi didn't miss. It was particularly noteworthy, because she rarely blushed about anything…

Though maybe that's the effect Katsuragi has on her… even yesterday, she blushed at the thought of doing _this and that_ with him.

Come to think of it, didn't Chihiro also end the conversation after Ayumi brushed off any awkwardness of Keima coming because neither of them had won his heart. So that was what she'd been hiding…

"What is it, then?" Ayumi asked, even though the answer was pretty clear on the normal girl's face.

"This isn't me just trying to fulfil an obligation or because I don't want to hurt him…" her face got brighter as she spoke, but the determination still remained throughout, "this is something I wanted, so that is why I was the one who asked him."

That was the first time Chihiro had put that into words, but they were honest… her emotions had dulled since when she first fell for him… she didn't laugh as hard or cry as much… her blushes didn't reach tomato level anymore, nor did her heart do the crazy gymnast flips it used to… and she definitely didn't get jealous about anything now… she didn't try as hard or aim for any particular goal.

Yet somehow, since she met him again, they were coming back… true, they were a lot smaller and further between… like waves crashing at her knees, instead of the frickin' tidal waves he'd put her through before… she didn't mind it, though.

Ayumi felt a surge of affection toward the bright pink girl on her bed. God, she was unbelievably pure.

"What are you, a maiden?" Ayumi teased. Chihiro shoved her off the bed.

"A-anyway, I'm dating him now and that's that," she stuck her tongue at the girl on the floor, "Katsuragi's going to want to hear about what you want, and I'm going to leave you to think about it…"

Chihiro swiftly got up and started leaving Ayumi's room.

"So do you thin‒"

"No, I'm not going to make out with him now!" Chihiro interrupted, predicting where it was going after that last jibe. A broad smile came to Ayumi's face.

"Actually, I was wondering if you thought that he'd be playing a game now…" Chihiro blanched, and the smile only got bigger, "though that is some very specific denial you have going on there…"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Chihiro chanted like a five year old kid as she left the room.

"Bet you 500 yen that he is!" Ayumi called in an amused voice, "and that you will!"

"SHUT UP!" Chihiro screamed one last time. This time, she was close enough to the living room that Keima overheard that. He placed his PF Hio on the floor next to him.

"Is everything alright?" he asked as soon as the somewhat frazzled girl sat opposite him. If her expression wasn't enough, she was sitting nowhere near him.

"Why am I even friends with that girl?" Chihiro grumbled, "I need a new roommate…"

Keima raised an eyebrow. Was that supposed to be sarcasm?

"What did she say?" She expertly dodged his question.

"Rather, were you playing with your PFP thing while you were waiting for us?"

"No…" Chihiro smiled. So she'd be getting some money soon. "Because I was playing my PF Hio…" he lifted the slightly longer console.

Well, so much for that… Keima could only wonder why that would irritate her… he'd put it away now.

"If you don't trust me to talk to you without playing, you can hold onto it…" he figured that must be the reason. Chihiro smiled.

"Keep it… if you want, you can even play with it now…"

Keima would have considered himself pretty lucky that he had a girlfriend who would let him do that, if it wasn't the fact that something like that would just sounded way too good to be true…

He placed the console down.

"Can I ask why?"

"We used to have quite a few conversations like this in class… and if that was anything to go by, you are attentive when you're playing…" she laughed, suddenly remembering something, "except that one time when you walked into the cling foil on the door that me and Ayumi had set up to get Nagase-sensei…"

Keima vaguely remembered that. So those two had been the culprits behind that… Though after what he'd seen today, that kind of behaviour didn't surprise him that much. Between attempting to scare each other, bullying some guy over groceries and having a screaming match across a hallway; it was obvious that they were still in touch with their inner child.

Honestly, it was nice to get that little insight into their lives and friendship.

"Katsuragi…" Chihiro waved in front of his face, "you're not mad about that cling foil prank, are you?"

"Why would I be mad?" he shrugged, "I bet it was a funny prank…"

Still, it felt a little off… like it went against his previous characterisation of both her and Ayumi. But it might be the fact that this was their home, so they could act more freely… or something else…

"Whatcha thinking about?" Chihiro asked, "is it about what you were asking before?"

Well, he hadn't been, but he sure was now… if she brought it up, it must have been that she had something to say herself.

"Your silence on the matter confused me, so I wanted to know what you honestly thought," Keima nodded. He really should have accepted it as a blessing that she didn't respond to it when Ayumi brought it up, but he had a few things to straighten out.

For one, he hadn't liked her all that time… he merely didn't fall for any other person in the real world… but he definitely didn't continue liking her that whole time… he didn't even think about her everyday anymore… that kind of devotion was only for Yokkyun. He maybe wondered about Chihiro every second or third day…

Though if that's for four years, that is still a little obsessive…

"Honestly…" Chihiro took a deep breath, "I wish you would have told me when you first started liking me... however, I also know how hard it is to speak about that, and I didn't make it particularly easier… there's no point getting pissed off about what happened in the past… again…"

That precisely summed it up for her. Every fight she'd had with Keima so far had something to do with what he had (or hadn't) done, and she was getting a little tired of always being on edge with him, because she was uncertain as to how she felt having him back in her life.

"Actually," she continued, her voice a little shaky, "I remember that after the campfire, I felt like crap… not only did getting rejected hurt, but I'd been the one who set myself up for that… that's why I promised myself that I would never reject anyone who confessed to me… so yeah… that was my decision, and you made yours…"

She looked up so she was looking at Keima's slightly surprised face.

"I made a lot of mistakes as well, so I'm not going to get mad or judge you for yours," she smiled sweetly, "I'm your girlfriend now, so I'll make it up to you… I hope you'll do the same."

"Okay," Keima averted his eyes, but the somewhat goofy smile on his face made it clear that he got the message, and it was a pretty nice message for him.

How the hell did this even happen? Yesterday, he really wouldn't have imagined he'd get here so soon… four years ago, he wouldn't have imagined that he'd get here… ever!

Though that word made his stomach bubble in panic… he'd gone past the happy end of a game, to the point where code never went up to. True, he was starting a different story now, but in terms of romantic plot, this was as far as he'd usually get… well, until they skipped to the wedding scene.

"Chihiro…" the girl hmmed to show she was listening, "what am I supposed to do now?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"The confession event is done… you accepted… so now where do we go from here?"

He was still on his games, wasn't he? Chihiro had to hold back a laugh at that.

"The confession event happened three hours ago… what have you been doing since then?"

"Information exchanging," he nodded firmly. She had to chuckle at that.

"That's one way of putting it… so did you acquire any good information today?"

Keima shrugged.

"Ayumi is still withholding the information I need… but I did get to see how the two of you live, and how you interact with random strangers who take your food. That was kind of interesting…"

"Exactly," Chihiro pulled a face, "though admittedly, we are better behaved normally… it's just coz we were at home, and he was stealing our food… that's one thing you don't want to do to a girl…"

Keima laughed. So he had been right about the weirder behaviour being linked to the comfort of their apartment.

"What about you… did you acquire any information that you could use?"

"Not really…" she muttered, her eyes falling on her still-full glass, "though I did learn that being nice to you isn't as difficult as I thought it would be…"

"Really?"

"Yeah… we used to alternate between ignoring and getting on each other's nerves, so I was a little nervous…" she laughed lightly, "oh, and also that you're ticklish…"

"How did you reach that conclusion?" Keima asked suspiciously, his arms held closer to his body than they normally would be.

"Just remembering some stuff from the past," she shrugged, "and you tensed up, which basically confirms it."

"That's an incorrect assumption," he replied coolly, "there are various reasons why I could have shifted."

"So you're not ticklish…" her eyes narrowed. Now she was serious.

"Not in the least bit…" he scoffed. It was hardly like she'd test that out.

Except she did, and it was as merciless as one would expect. With a speed Keima wasn't expecting, she moved around the table (or maybe she even dove underneath it) and basically attacked him. Luckily, he wasn't very ticklish, and after the first yelp of surprised, he had enough of a grip on his limbs to grab a hold of her forearms.

"What the hell!?" he pushed her arms as far away from his person as possible. While that wasn't a very successful attack, a huge smile came onto her face.

"You had that exact reaction last time," she laughed, "you know I wouldn't have done that if you'd just been honest and just admitted it…"

Her voice trailed off as she noticed their position. They were sitting right opposite each other, her hands pressed on the ground between then, and Keima's hands around her wrists. With only a little bit of motion, she'd be able to close the distance between their heads.

Keima seemed to be having the same thoughts, considering his hands slid down further so they were on hers properly. His eyes seemed to ask the same question her brain was struggling with.

'Can I?'

Chihiro blinked, the scenery suddenly changing to dark skies. Keima's head hovered above hers, and her heart thumped with the ferocity of a bodybuilder taking out a bad day on a sandbag. She was more surprised he couldn't hear it over the miniscule distance.

She didn't need to play through the rest of the scene, because her heart still remembered it perfectly… her confession… his hesitation… her embarrassment…

There was so much that she couldn't put in words… how she never imagined anything like this happening in her life… how she'd been perfectly content with jamming with her band and doing whatever, yet his presence messed it up in the best way possible… how insanely happy she was to have him by her side…

So she kissed him, trying to put forward those feelings in best she could.

Obviously, she also remembered how that turned out… she'd honestly wished for the fireworks would have gone off while they kissed, but instead, they timed well with him ripping her heart in half… like some kind of cruel piñata…

When she blinked again, she was back to the position before. It would be so easy to just go with it and give him what he wanted… what she still wasn't sure of…

"Please don't…" Chihiro spoke softly, her voice trembling. Whatever semblance of a good mood those two had going fell into awkwardness. Keima found himself watching her face… her eyes focused on their hands… her cheeks without any semblance of a blush, and her expression… seemed sad…

She was thinking about their last kiss, wasn't she?

Keima moved away slightly to give her some space. He should have predicted that he'd run into this road block… so he still had trouble predicting what she'd do, even when she was trying to be more accommodating to him…

"I'm sorry," Keima sighed after he had backed away to a safer distance, "I should have known that it was too early to pull an event like this…"

Chihiro laughed slightly at the usage of that word, but it was obvious on her face that she was still bothered.

"It's fine… I just have a few things to work through before I reach that point…"

She took a breath and moved to the other side of the table, now putting a good two metres of space between them.

For a good fifteen seconds (the ticking of the watch on the wall was painfully audible in the silence), Chihiro played with the sleeves of her hoodie, while Keima thought about what topic he could bring up to not make things worse.

"I-I wonder where Ayumi is…" Keima piped up nervously.

Almost as if that was a cue, Ayumi appeared at the door, an exuberant smile on her face.

"Did somebody call!?" she announced, hammier than Keima had ever seen from her, "because I am here, and I've made my decision…"

With the interruption, Chihiro seemed to relax.

"Did you decide that you're going to torture Katsuragi?" Chihiro asked, as if the idea excited her.

"Better," she grinned, "I'm going to have Katsuragi hang out and do stuff for me…"

"Is this going to get annoying again?" Keima asked, his voice exasperated. Ayumi plopped herself down on the table opposite Keima.

"You bet," she laughed, "you want to make it up to me, right?" Keima nodded, "and you still have to deal with the Goddesses, right?" he nodded again.

"Then what better way is there to resolve this than completing my requests and regaining Mel's trust?" Ayumi asked. Keima thought about it for a moment. That wasn't a bad solution, actually… just, it was lacking with regards to Dokuro's mission…

"Will you wear the watch if I agree?" he asked suspiciously.

"I will wear the watch and let you talk to Mel with regards to this…" she answered. Keima smiled… so she had given it a good amount of thought. Still, she seemed to know more than he'd revealed to her… Chihiro must have been supplementing her information.

So Ayumi still did have that whole tactician thing going on…

"How many requests would this require for you to agree to cooperate to me?"

"Five… and this treatment needs to be given to Yui and the rest of them…"

Keima's eyes narrowed. That was thirty requests in total… he barely had half a month to complete this mission.

"Rejected. The most I can promise is two requests with this time limit…"

Chihiro watched as the negotiations bounced from one side of the wooden table to the other.

"Four requests," Ayumi eyes narrowed, "with how you treated us, wouldn't you say you owe us that much?"

Keima felt a twinge at that. She did have a point…

"How about three requests for each host and one for each Goddess…" Keima said, a bit more subdued, "that way, I can do something for the Goddesses before they ascend."

"Katsuragi, didn't you say you only had two weeks for this?" Chihiro reminded. Keima smirked suddenly.

"I'm always up for a challenge…" he pushed up his glasses. Chihiro rolled her eyes.

"Then why don't you stick to the original amount…" she mumbled under her breath.

"I would still prefer to think of this realistically… 24 is more manageable in fourteen days, and three requests should be enough to convince the hosts that I am serious about what I'm doing…"

"So four requests… three for me and one for Mel…"

"That is what I'm willing to offer… this will be for every girl as well, of course…"

"Approved," Ayumi nodded, holding out her hand. Keima smiled slightly and gave it a shake.

An idea occurred to Chihiro as her fingers played around in the pocket of her hoodie. She pulled out the pack of post-its from the restaurant.

"Katsuragi, why don't you give each girl these… so they know you would have to fulfil everything which is written on these papers…" she pushed the pack toward him, "like a blank coupon book…"

Ayumi nodded. Keima, on the other hand, had his doubts.

"It's not like we study at the same school anymore… how will they give me their requests if they can't see me in person?"

"They could email you a picture…" Ayumi remarked.

"Or they could send the picture on LIME…" Chihiro added. Cell phones really are wonderful.

"Oooh, LIME would totally work…" Ayumi joined in on the thought excitedly, "I could even make a group for all of us to talk, and Katsuragi could add each girl as he sees them…"

"That's a great idea… you could share experiences and knowledge on the chat…" Chihiro paused… maybe it was better if she stayed out of it then…

Keima lifted up his hand, fast enough that the girls caught it in their peripherals and stopped talking.

"Can someone explain to me what LIME is?" Keima interrupted.

"You've never used LIME?" Keima shook his head to Ayumi's question.

"It's just a messaging service," Chihiro shrugged, not that surprised that Keima didn't know it, "lend me your phone for a second…"

Keima wordlessly passed his smartphone over. It had been a birthday gift from his mother after she discovered Keima was still using the same flip phone that he'd been using all through high school… he couldn't really help it, considering he only used it to make calls, and it fulfilled its purpose just fine.

"Nice…" Chihiro whistled, examining it from the sides, "do you do much with this?"

"Not really," Keima shrugged, "just calls and the occasional work email…"

What a waste… this was a pretty decent phone too…

"Well, now you will…" she unlocked the phone by just swiping it, "now, you'll be using LIME to chat with everyone…"

Over the next few minutes, the two girls got him the app and explained everything he'd need to know… Keima understood that he was gathering information for this new mission, but where the hell did stickers and forcing him to get a pattern lock come in here?

"I got it, I got it!" Keima replied impatiently after the explanation of the amazing, yet stupid technology which would add contacts by just shaking phones in the vicinity of each other, "can we get to the actual information now?"

"I want my post-it coupons first…" Ayumi said in a completely bored tone. Keima clicked his tongue, but grabbed the short stack off the table, scribbling Ayumi's name at the top and "guaranteed by Keima Katsuragi" at the bottom. He repeated the second phrase on three more of those post-its before passing the four pale yellow squares over.

"There… Three for you and one for Mercury… Are you happy now?"

"What about for me?" Chihiro joined in. She wasn't really serious about it, but if she actually could get a few of those… that would be nice…

"What are you even going on about?" Keima gave her an exasperated look, "I'm your boyfriend now, so you know I'll do whatever you want, regardless whether it's written or not…"

This, of course, was said in the most duh tone known to mankind… like it was so expected that he didn't even know why she'd bring it up at all…

Both girls blanched for a second, before Chihiro turned bright red, and Ayumi started laughing. Keima wondered at the sudden change…

"Well said, Katsuragi," Ayumi slapped him on the back, "even after all those years, you can still charm the pants off Chihi‒ OWW!"

Even if the normal girl was embarrassed, she could still give a mean kick under a table.

"Not another word from you!" Chihiro hissed. Ayumi held her arms up in surrender.

Keima just watched the scene in front of him, not really getting it…

He still didn't understand real girls, but he considered that to be a fact of life by this point.

"Err…" he waved towards the two girls to get their attention, "can we get to the issue at hand?"

"My request?" Ayumi questioned.

"We can get to that later… right now, I need to know more about the supernatural powers, and how the watch actually correlates to that…"

"Okay," Ayumi nodded, "I don't appreciate you brushing off the importance of my requests, but I haven't thought of one yet, so for now it's fine…"

Chihiro found herself in a bit of a bind as she listened. Part of her wanted to stay and find out all the details Ayumi would give… but most of her brain was just telling her to leave it to them, and if either of them needed help, then they could tell her whatever they felt fit.

This didn't have anything to do with her, after all… her presence might even influence the level of honesty in what they'd say, and that could be problematic too.

"Katsuragi," Chihiro spoke up, "I think I'm gonna head to my room now. Can I leave this to you?"

"What's up with that?" Ayumi laughed, "I thought the whole point was to stop being so secretive…"

"Exactly," Chihiro agreed, "and I believe that both of you will hold back if I stay here… that's why I'll leave it to you both to talk and come up with your own answer… you can tell me if you want, but in the end, it doesn't concern me, so I'm not going to force myself to stay here."

Keima nodded. He could recognise the parallels between this decision now, and the one she'd made ages ago, during the first night of the festival… she was definitely more eloquent about it this time, but the maturity behind it was the same, and Keima wanted to believe he understood the message better this time.

This definitely wasn't a love triangle, but personal relationships did add a dynamic to a conversation, so that was why Chihiro didn't want to influence this anymore than she already had.

"Yeah, it's fine," Keima nodded, "you'll probably find the itty gritty details to be boring anyway…"

Chihiro laughed.

"See, this guy gets me," she indicated toward him, before the laugh fell to a small smile, "thanks, Katsuragi…"

While the voice was subdued, the sentiment was real. Keima was doing one hell of a job reminding her of why she liked him in the first place for the whole of today.

"You're welcome," he replied with the same smile, "now I'm sure you have better stuff to do…"

"Indeed," Chihiro clapped her hands as she left, "I owe Ayumi 250 yen…"

Keima's eyes followed her until she disappeared from his sight. He then turned back to Ayumi, who was grinning pointedly at him.

"You're so in love with her, aren't you?"

"I thought this was old news already…" Keima sighed.

"Not. At. All." She smirked, "actually, I'm still curious about the moment you decided you loved Chihiro…"

"Huh?"

"You know… there's that one moment when the person you like says something, and your brain starts screaming 'my God, you are so perfect… don't ever leave, and don't ever change, and I'll love you forever', or something like that… after that, you're a gonner… so did you have something like that with Chihiro?"

"Can't say I have…" Keima shrugged, "I already told you what happened with Ishigami… is that the kind of moment you're referring to?"

She shook her head.

"That may have been the moment you put a name to that, but I can assure you that you liked her for a lot longer than that…" Keima let out a snort.

"If I didn't know, how can you be so certain if it?"

"Because of that look you gave her as you were watching her leave just now… like she was the only girl that mattered…" Ayumi paused, "after she confessed to you outside your room door, you had that same expression as you were watching her from your window…"

Keima felt his breath catch against his throat… not only had he never picked that up, but the girl he was in the middle of conquering was the one to notice that… that was pretty damn shameful!

"Of course, I didn't actually make that conclusion at the time, but on the night you came back, you said you were going to confess to her… I thought about it a lot, and that thought did come up."

Ayumi laughed.

"Well, I'm glad you're going out now…" Ayumi fell back on her hands, "if watching you two taught me anything today, it's that you still make a good couple…"

After a few moments pause, Ayumi's head snapped up.

"Of course, not as good as me and Kyousuke, but maybe you'll reach there in a few years…"

Ayumi waited for Keima to retaliate, but Keima's brain latched onto something else.

"Kyousuke… that's your boyfriend, right?"

"Right… he works in the same elementary school as me," she smiled, "but at the moment, I'm guessing that you'd rather talk about the task at hand than him…"

"Kinda," Keima glanced at the time on his phone, "I'm really happy for you, and I'm sure he's a great guy, but getting information is what I need at this time…"

Ayumi took a deep breath.

"Fair enough," Ayumi shrugged, "so what kind of questions do you have?"

Keima smiled at his own predictableness, before pulling out his PF Hio. While he'd been waiting for Ayumi and Chihiro to finish their conversation, he'd written some questions in a draft email.

"Firstly, how long have you had these powers?" Keima asked.

"About six months…" she replied easily, He quickly typed her answer under it. Keima had to give her credit, considering that he must have been the first person other than Chihiro to talk to him about it… it was a surprise she was handling it so well.

"Okay… did something happen in your life that may have triggered it off?"

"I can't say…" Ayumi drummed her short nails on the table, "there wasn't any big change in my life and‒"

"Kyousuke?"

"I knew him by that point, but we only started dating sometime after that…" Keima nodded, but he wasn't quite sure what to make about that. Considering the Goddesses gained power through their host falling in love, why would it go the opposite way now?

He didn't even know whether love had to do anything with it at all…

"Has Mercury told you anything about this?" he asked, this question not on his list.

"She did teach me to control it somewhat," she sighed, "most people have to just worry if their palms are sweaty when they hold onto their partner's hands… I have to make sure I don't mistakenly burn or freeze them or something…."

Keima suddenly felt a rush of respect toward the girl, remembering what had happened with Tenri yesterday… she'd been pretty freaked out at the time, and because he didn't know about anything, he couldn't be of any help, but at least he was affiliated with the magic world that he's understand…

"Wh-what about the other Goddesses… did Mercury try to get in contact with them?"

"She sent a Rune around when it first happened, but only Yui's Goddess seemed to get it, and she didn't understand it, because it hadn't started for Yui at that point."

"But it's started for Yui now…" Keima concluded by her wording. Ayumi nodded.

"Apollo and Mel both believe that it is related to falling in love, but unlike before, they aren't getting stronger…"

Keima's eyes narrowed… with games, any given action will have the same reaction, regardless of how many times it is done… some parameter must have changed to cause an opposite reaction with the Goddesses…

What would be different about their love this time?

Well, it wasn't him that either of them had fallen for…

It wasn't him… it wasn't some six-timing creep who just wanted to reach the ending with each girl… their new loves were probably good guys who returned their affections.

They returned the affection!

Keima's eyes snapped open, surprising Ayumi.

"How long have you loved Kyousuke?" he asked urgently. Ayumi suddenly blushed, her eyes narrowing.

"W-why do I have to tell you?" Keima didn't have time for her to get embarrassed about that.

"Is it more or less than the six months you mentioned before?" he spoke without trying to soften the punch of it.

"L-less, I guess…" she mumbled. Keima nodded… that wasn't a bad starting point… though he should stop scaring Ayumi now.

"Okay, I think I might know about what is causing Mercury's power to dissipate in you," he grabbed the pen he'd been using before and started drawing on a post-it. Ayumi, for the life of her, couldn't tell what the two blob thing was.

"Okay, let's say this is you and Mercury," he indicated to the bigger figure with some ghost looking thing inside, "and this is me…" he pointed to the other one with spikey hair. Ayumi nodded.

"It may take some imagination, but go on…"

Keima ignored the jibe at his drawing and continued.

"Four years ago, you regained your memories and started liking me," he started drawings arrows going from the Ayumi blob to the Keima blob, "however; I didn't like you in the same way, so I never sent anything back…"

"Coz you liked Chihiro…" Ayumi teased.

"We are not going back to this conversation," Keima replied firmly, before sticking the post-it to face Ayumi, "on the other hand…"

Ayumi slammed her hand down on his, sending the pen flying. To his surprise, they were pretty normal in temperature… Tenri's hands had been completely frigid.

"I get it, so no more pictures…" she pulled her hand back, "now, Kyousuke likes me back, so the situation is different than it was before."

"Exactly…" he drew the arrows, now the flow of them more reminiscent to a ventilation system, "though more ironically, I assumed the Goddesses would become even more powerful if it was the case of requited love… but it seems to go the opposite way… so right now, because you and Kyousuke truly like each other now, it's actually making Mercury weaker…"

"We're… the ones who are doing this to Mel?" Ayumi replied, her face becoming a bit pained.

"That's actually the plan," Keima tapped on the watch's face, which was still sitting on the table, "Dokuro was saying that the Goddess would need to split her power in half, before she can remove them safely…"

Ayumi's eyes narrowed.

"I thought you had to find the way to remove them…" she called him out on his previous half-lie. Keima just shrugged.

"I just need to find out how to influence the power distribution, which would lead to Dokuro somehow being able to remove them…" he spoke truthfully this time, "usually, I'd see a story through to the ending, but in this case, I'm more of a vehicle which would take you to the climax, after which, it leaves my hands."

"Wasn't it the same when you were awakening the Goddesses?" Ayumi noted. He hadn't even been around during the fighting.

Keima nodded. She was right on the money…

"Okay," Ayumi nodded, "so your method will save Mel and me, as well as stop any destruction a loose spirit may cause, if it possesses me after Mel disappears, right?"

Keima groaned. So Chihiro really did tell Ayumi everything… if you make a plan, stick to it, dammit!

"According to Dokuro, that is true," Keima confirmed. Ayumi took a deep breath.

"I'm going to need to talk to Mel about this, but in the meantime, you can consider me convinced," she rubbed her thumb against the worn leather of the watch, "what does this thing do, anyway?"

"It's supposed to be an indicator of sorts… once you put it on, it'll tell you the ratio of how much of Mercury's power has been absorbed into your body…"

Ayumi still looked hesitant at the explanation, but she fastened it to her wrist. Almost immediately after it made contact with her skin, the short hand began to move.

"What time is it showing?" Keima asked curiously. It took a few moments before it stopped moving.

"Four o' clock, I guess…" she approximated, considering there wasn't any numbers on the face. Keima nodded in approval.

"Then the power distribution would be 33:67… by the end, it needs to be 50:50, so you are well on your way…"

"What if I get too much of Mel's powers," Ayumi asked. Keima only shrugged at that.

"No clue," a flash of annoyance came to his face, "this premise is bloody complicated, and I don't know anything more than the bare minimum… I wish Dokuro could have just dealt with it…"

Ayumi felt a sharp twinge of anger and hurt at that last line.

"Well, sorry you have to be here again," she spoke in a dangerously even tone, a somewhat familiar feeling coursing through her bones toward her palms, "it must be annoying, having to deal with us again…"

Keima's eyes widened at the badly-veiled bitterness under that voice. That last line in particular jogged something he should have picked up before.

" _Is this going to get annoying?_

" _I don't appreciate you brushing off the importance of my requests…"_

"… _like she was the only girl that mattered…"_

God, Keima was such an idiot! He didn't mean to add that implication into his words at all…

"Hit me, will you!" Keima muttered. Could he be any more of an insensitive jerk?

"Oh, it's coming," Ayumi replied, a little hysterically as she watched her hand for the ensuing frost or flame or lightning bolt… that always came after that feeling. Keima seemed to be bracing himself for the punch.

Ayumi stared at her palm… why wasn't it coming?

Keima looked up as well… why wasn't it coming?

"Look… Ayumi…" Keima spoke tentatively, but the girl was looking around at her extremities, wondering why Mercury's powers weren't visible right now, "can I explain myself as well?"

"Do you know why it stopped?" Ayumi asked, now looking confused.

"What stopped?" Keima asked, now lost as well.

"When you said that… I could feel my powers coming, and then they suddenly stopped…"

"Really?" he mused for a moment, before remembering the much bigger misunderstanding that he had to clear up, "look, can I say something else first?"

"What is it!?"

"Why I'm irritated about this whole situation…" he sat up, "the fact of the matter is that I really haven't been told much… it just makes it more unfair for you, when all you wanted was an explanation, and I can't give you it…"

He took a deep breath.

"You said that Chihiro was the only girl who mattered to me… you're wrong about that, however," he pushed up his glasses, which had slipped down his nose, "maybe I can't convince you now, but you aren't some plot device that is delaying my happy end, nor are you a disturbance in my life… you are a very important person in my life, and I want to help…" he awkwardly looked toward the side, "it's more annoying for me that I can't help you as much as I'd like…"

For a good moment, neither of them said anything.

"Awwwww!" Ayumi cooed, "You're so cute when you're embarrassed."

"Who said I was embarrassed with saying that," Keima protested, but the light blush on his cheeks begged to differ, "I just want to make it clear that I care about my heroines, and regardless of what I say‒"

"You adore me…" she finished off with a small smile, "you adore us all… even if it isn't real love…"

"Yes… and I'd do anything for you," Keima nodded, "so please give me the opportunity to do that, and so I can earn your forgiveness…"

"Of course…" Ayumi said sweetly, "I do have a question, though…"

"What is it?"

"If there was a situation where both me and Chihiro were going to get shot, and you could only take the bullet for one of us, who would you take it for?"

Keima's face fell back to its usual indifferent thinking face.

"Who's going to be shot first?" Ayumi had a slight idea where this was going…

"Both of us at the same time," she closed up that loophole.

"Would Mercury be with you? She'd be able to create a force field around both of you, and there would be no need for a senseless sacrifice…"

"No, there's no Mel in this scenario," Ayumi replied. Keima opened his mouth but she interrupted, "there are no other Goddesses in this scenario either."

Keima's mouth closed as he thought of another question.

"Is there one or two gunmen he‒" Keima shut up as Ayumi shot him a scathing glare, "what, if there's only one, I can tackle him and save you both…"

"For God sakes, I'm asking if Chihiro or me mean more to you!?" Ayumi snapped. Keima had been trying to bypass the issue with questions, but her patience was worn thin by this point, so he gave his honest answer.

"I wouldn't be able to choose," he laughed shortly, "you'd kick me if I chose you, and Chihiro would scream at me forever if I chose her…"

Ayumi could totally imagine that…

"Honestly, neither of you are the damsel in distress type… if you were both caught in this situation, you would fight off each other's attacker, and I'd get to play a game while I wait for you guys to win…"

Ayumi wouldn't lie… Keima was still smooth as hell, even if his words weren't with the intention to woo her.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…" Ayumi laughed, "So should we get back to my magical powers?"

"I didn't ask, but are your powers like Tenri? She seems to make snow come out of her hand…" she nodded.

"That does happen sometimes… but at other times, my hand just sets on fire, or starts sparking…"

Keima raised an eyebrow.

"So you're a superhero from a kids TV show?"

"Don't make fun of me…" Ayumi warned, "I can set your arse on fire if I feel like it…" Keima held up his hand in peace.

"Though you have enough knowledge to control when it goes off, right?" She pulled a face and waved her hand.

"So-so… it usually happens if I feel some heightened emotion, and I can feel the power just as it approaches, so I can at least put down anything I'm holding… repressing the emotion works to lessen the effects, but I'm not tha…"

Ayumi trailed off as Keima pressed a button on his PF Hio, waking the screen up again. He then went back to typing what she was saying in his email draft. He looked up as she stopped speaking.

"You can continue…"

"The buttons are loud… can't you type on your phone, or just wait till I'm done?"

Keima sighed, but put down his console.

"Thank you… and as I was saying, repressing emotions does help, but I'm not good at doing that."

"Okay," Keima nodded, "can you show me these powers, by any chance? I'm assuming that forcing yourself to feel some emotion does cause them to happen…"

"That assumption is correct, but as I said, something nearly happened when I got mad at you, but it stopped before it came to the surface…" she looked at the watch, "could this thing have done something?"

Keima took the arm she was wearing the watch, the first difference with it was pretty obvious.

"The watch face was white before," he tapped the pinkish face, "I think it may have absorbed the power which was going to your hand."

He looked at the watch curiously. It wasn't hot or anything… did Dokuro even mention the watch being able to do that?

"This watch can nullify my powers?" Ayumi wondered…

Keima smirked. Magical objects are so convenient.

"Can you try forcing some magic? I want to see if your conjecture is right…"

Ayumi randomly stood up and stretched.

"This isn't a race, you know…" Keima replied. Ayumi stuck her tongue out at him.

"I was getting stiff sitting on the floor," she stretched, her bones popping slightly, "gimme a second, alright."

Though there was an alternate reason for wanting to get up and be less in his view… to create feelings, she'd need some memory to bring up, and the last thing she wanted was that guy to pick up on it…

He was a very strange mix of "dense as a brick" and "perceptive as hell", a fact she wasn't very fond of.

After a few moments, the feeling of something skittering over her bones toward her hands started. That was when she started staring at the watch…

It turned from a pastel pink to strawberry-tinged yellow.

"It did it again," she held the watch to Keima, "this would be really helpful, actually… last test period, I had to pay Chihiro to do my marking, because I nearly set some dumbass' paper on fire…"

Keima snorted.

"How much money did she want?"

"Nearly a whole month's salary," Ayumi pouted, "apparently keeping my sanity up was not enough of a reason to want to help me…"

That fitted perfectly with what he'd been imagining…

He glanced at his PF Hio screen, his eyes focusing on the time in the top right corner for the first time. He'd already been here three hours, and by this time, it would be dark outside.

He had gotten some pretty good information today… maybe he should call it a day now?

He pulled himself up, slipping his console into his pocket.

In any case, Ayumi was starting to get distracted as well, as she was checking her emails and messages as she strolled around the room.

"Ayumi… I think I'm done interro‒"

"Oh shit!" Ayumi interrupted, her eyes widening at something she received, "that's tomorrow!?"

"What's tomorrow?" Keima asked. Ayumi was too busy running her fingers through her hair, making it into a spikey mess.

"Careers day for the fifth year students… I was supposed to find a guest speaker…"

"Aren't the kids supposed to inv‒?"

"CHIHIROOO!" Ayumi yelled. By this point, Keima accepted that he wouldn't get a sentence out anymore.

"WHAAT!?" Another voice answered from another room.

"DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO'S NOT STUDYING RIGHT NOOW!?"

Keima rolled his eyes… this apartment really just turned them into sisters, it seemed.

"KATSURAGII! HE'S ROLLING IN CAASH!" Chihiro called back. Ayumi suddenly turned to Keima, who leant away.

"Katsuragi, you're into the whole game design thing, right?"

Keima nodded hesitantly.

"Please come to my school tomorrow…" she begged. Keima frowned. He'd been planning to track down more people for the day.

"I-I need to find the other hosts…" he spoke weakly. Ayumi leant down and grabbed the pen and her four-page stack of post-its, quickly scribbling her request on it.

"Now you can't say no," Ayumi reminded, before sticking the sheet on his forehead, "please come to my school tomorrow!"

"Fine, fine!" he pulled the paper off his forehead, "I'll probably have more questions, so you better be prepared for it."

"Thank you!" she threw her arms around him in excitement, "you have to make a ten minute presentation, so can you throw something together?"

"Don't have much of a choice, do I?" Keima smiled wryly, patting her head affectionately (and so he wouldn't get any wayward hair in his mouth), "I'll be there, and I'll come up with something good…"

"That's Otamega for you… putting effort into everything he does…"

Keima scoffed.

"Please… this may be the first taste of galge those kids get… I will give them the best first impression they'll have in their life!"

Ayumi rolled her eyes and shoved him… he was just one evil laugh away from conquering her school with his games.

"Which reminds me… I'll need to send you the addres‒"

"No need," Keima did the interrupting this time, "I'll meet you at your school first thing tomorrow… though I should be off as well…"

He slid her request into the pocket of his jacket and started heading to the door, before noting that Ayumi had gone back to sitting at the table.

"What, not going to walk me to the door?" Keima asked.

"Nah, I'll leave that to Chihiro," she shot him a grin, "have fun… and preferably, win me the full 500 yen."

Keima's eyes furrowed. What was she going on about?

Ayumi had been right, as Chihiro was leaning on the wall by the door, playing with her phone. Keima walked over to her.

"Yo," he greeted. Chihiro looked up, a smile coming to her face as well.

"I trust it went well… you're not black and blue, which is good."

"Ayumi was willing to share everything she knew," he remarked, "it was a bit surprising, but everything went a lot better than I expected… not perfectly, but still well."

"That's great… and did she give you any requests?"

"Yep," he showed her the paper, "I'm apparently going to be the face of galge tomorrow…"

A broad smile came to his face, and Chihiro's eyebrow rose to the roof.

"It's a career day… don't forget to actually talk about your job and not why your games are the greatest thing since sliced bread…"

"Fine…" his enthusiasm kerbed at the reminder, "so did you come to say goodbye to me?"

Chihiro shrugged, suddenly looking a bit more nervous.

"It's more of a 'see you later'… and if you want, we can also chat on LIME… or email, if you'd prefer that… or if you have something else you have to do, we don't have to speak at all… up to you, of course…"

The smile that came from her clumsy attempt at asking if he'd be up to talking later was a lot smaller than the one he got from the thought of getting some eleven year old students hooked on galge, but the effect on his mood was just about the same.

"I'll try to come on for a little bit," he answered, "I'll see you later then, Chihiro…"

"O-one more thing…" she muttered, before shoving something into his hand. Even though their hallway had dimmer lighting, Keima could tell that there were more post-its.

"For me?" Keima confirmed.

"I-I know we're d-dating now, but I can't promise I'll be honest or cooperative all the time… but if you have anything in particular that you want me to do or want me to answer, you can write it on these… they're five of them…"

Keima ran his thumb over the edge, noticing an inconsistency.

"I think you gave me six sheets," he started pulling the top one off to return it, when Chihiro put her hand up.

"It's five papers," she assured, "the sixth one is the answer to your question from yesterday."

"What question?" he wondered, lifting the sheets one by one to get to the answer. That was when he felt Chihiro start steering him out.

"You can read that when you get home," Chihiro spoke irritably. Keima stopped leafing through the post-its immediately, before she kicked him out of the apartment.

"Actually, I have a question before I go…" Chihiro stopped pushing as soon he was on the other side of the door.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Ayumi said I had to do something to get her the full 500 yen for something… what is it?"

For a moment, Chihiro was stumped at what he may have been referring to, until she remembered the bet they'd made, just as she'd left Ayumi's room.

She knew she owed Ayumi 250 yen because Keima had been gaming when she'd come back… the other 250…

For a second, Keima noticed the rising colour on Chihiro's cheeks, but before he could comment, she shut the door with a quick bye.

"AYUMI, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" he heard Chihiro's voice on the other side of the door. Despite the itching curiosity, he decided it was better to just leave now… besides, it meant he could look at her answer now… if he could remember what the question was…

* * *

In the train ride back, Keima had missed the commuters' rush, so he got to sit down. He rubbed his thumb against the pale pink post-its Chihiro had given him, wondering whether he should try to remember the question, or just go for the answer straight.

As he stepped off at Maijima Station, he gave into his curiosity and read the answer… six simple kana that, for the life of him, he couldn't remember the context to… what a waste!

Keima let himself into the café at around 08:30, around the time where Eri and Mari would be doing the last of the day's cleaning. What surprised him was that Tenri was sitting at the counter, looking over a crossword puzzle, while Eri was mopping behind the counter.

"Welcome back, Nii-sama…" his sister greeted.

"You must have worked hard today, Keima-kun…" Tenri gave him a nod.

"Not that much… I just went out for lunch, then explained everything to Ayumi…" he sighed, "actually, it was pretty exhausting… could you make me some coffee, Eri?"

"Sure, Nii-sama…" Eri nodded, disappearing into the kitchen. Then he noted that he was alone with Tenri.

"Actually, please make that a glass of juice!" he called out.

"Suure!" Eri confirmed the change.

"How was your day, Tenri?" Keima asked, trying to keep it as general as he could.

"The same as usual," she shrugged, "how was yours, Keima-kun?"

The same couldn't really be said about his day… his mostly consisted of old high school people, acting completely differently than how he remembered them, yet still being as goofy as grade schoolers…

Which incidentally, was where he was going to be tomorrow…?

"Odd…" he shrugged, "felt like it took two weeks to live through it…"

Tenri laughed.

"Though it sounds like the good type of a long day…" Tenri took a sip from the cup next to her, "was it productive?"

"Oh yeah," Keima decided to ignore the first, annoyingly perceptive, part, "I told Ayumi all about what Dokuro had told me yesterday…"

"Do-chan came over yesterday?" Tenri turned to him. This was news to her.

"She came after that whole ice ball incident…" Keima spoke, "and I actually got an explanation on what happened there…"

"Really? Can you explain to me?"

Keima felt himself internally dying at the thought of that discussion again, till he remembered something.

"Wait, can I get something from upstairs?" he quickly excused himself. A minute later, he was back with another one of those watches.

"What is this, Keima-kun?" Tenri stared at the blank face of the watch.

"Do you have LIME?" Keima asked. He almost sighed in relief when she nodded her head, "Ayumi asked me to make a group for all the Goddess Hosts to join… she'll give you all the details…"

"Really," Tenri's eyes started shining, "Takahara-san is so nice…"

"Oh yeah," Keima nodded frantically, "her explanation is really good… all you need to know is that Diana has lent you some of her power, and that is why that it's happening…"

God, he could only imagine the hell he was going to get from Ayumi tomorrow…

At that point, Eri came back, a small glass of juice on a tray. Keima wondered what took her so long.

"There wasn't any juice in the fridge, so I needed to go to the inventory cupboard," she answered the question he didn't ask.

"Sorry to make you go through that effort," he downed the glass at once, "do you know how to add anyone on LIME?" the little sister nodded, "can you add Tenri on my phone, then make a group with me, Ayumi and Tenri?"

Eri was more than happy to oblige…

"Thank you," Tenri said appreciatively once it was all said and done. She folded her jacket over her arm and folded up the newspaper she'd been doing the crossword on, "I'll see you both later…"

"See you, Tenri…" Keima waved to her half-heartedly.

"Bye, Tenri-san," the younger sister said with a lot more energy. Tenri gave her a slight bow, before turning to Keima.

"I'm glad things turned out well with Kosaka-san…" she gave him a small smile. Keima fell off his stool in surprise, and that just made her smile bigger. Tenri bowed once toward him, before leaving the door.

"You saw Chihiro-san today?" Eri asked as she offered Keima a hand up, "is everything alright after what happened yesterday?"

"I'd say," he dusted his pants, despite nothing being on it. It was mostly an excuse to not look at Eri.

"Which reminds me… did she answer that question?"

"What was the question again?" Keima asked, more desperately than he needed to.

"You know… about how she felt, seeing you and Tenri-san at the theme park together…"

Keima suddenly pulled the slightly crumpled stack from his pocket, quickly turning to the last page…

There, in Chihiro's fairly normal handwriting were the six characters he'd seen as soon as he'd left the train...

"I was jealous…"

All of a sudden, Keima felt his head spin as the meaning hit him harder than anything did before...

He couldn't understand why... if wasn't like they weren't dating... it wasn't even that much of a surprise, considering what had happened yesterday... then why did it feel like it made all the difference in the world? Why did it make him feel like his own feelings grew deeper, even though they were mostly admittance of her own?

Keima stood up, the sounds around him being way too loud... confessions are bloody dangerous things... you have to be a psychopath to not feel anything when someone confesses to you...

* * *

"Chihiro," Ayumi stuck her head into her room, where she was reading a magazine at her desk, "random question..."

"No, I'm not giving you 250 yen... I won one part, and you won the other, which balances it out..." Chihiro replied, not turning back.

"Not that... do you happen to have any of Katsuragi's hair on you?"

Even Chihiro, who was used to the insanity of this house, had to turn at that...

"The hell?"

"Oh, I'm making a voodoo doll," Ayumi replied, as if it explained it all, "I'm going to curse that son of a b‒"

"Are you nuts, Ayumi!?" Chihiro jumped out of her seat, "you can't curse my boyfriend..."

"Ugh, forget it!" Ayumi went back into the hallway, "I'll go look in the room we were sitting in before..." Chihiro couldn't leave it at that, though.

"What did Katsuragi even do to you?" she asked, following her livid roommate around. Ayumi suddenly stopped.

"He left me. to explain. this entire thing. to Ayukawa. on LIME!" With each pause, she seemed to get more angry. She took a deep breath before continuing.

"Now I've traumatised the poor girl, when that was Katsuragi's bloody job!" Chihiro put a hand on Ayumi's shoulder.

"Maybe it's better like this... between me and Katsuragi, we thought about it, and we still didn't say it properly... on the other hand, you understand what's happening, and you've gone through it as well..."

"Like a Senpai?" Ayumi asked. Chihiro nodded her head... after that, Ayumi seemed to calm down, and Chihiro gave herself a pat on the back for letting Keima live another day...

Of course, that lasted till she returned to her room to her phone's notification light blinking...

"Really... I wouldn't have taken you to be the jealous type..."

Maybe it was time for Chihiro to make her own doll...

* * *

 **Ahh... just some random comedy to close off this chapter... I dunno, the ending part was just a headcanon I had after writing the part where Keima volunteered Ayumi to help Tenri, so I figured I may as well add it.**

 **In any case, if you got as far as this, you deserve a cookie... this was a pretty heavy chapter, but all in all, I'm happy at how it turned out, in terms of both plots. You guys let me know, though...**

 **Next chapter is still gonna be about Ayumi, obviously... Keima's gonna get to be an otaku around grade schoolers, and of course, there's the special man in her life who also works there, so I hope you're hyped! (and yes, xellos... I'll finally talk about that third address)**

 **Review time:**

 **al000p- If you liked that update, I hope this makes you doubly happy, as this is doubly long...**

 **Shawn Raven- I did enjoy writing that part with Yuuta, but I wouldn't go quite far as to say that his presence is insignificant... I noticed you've been writing too (probably during the time I was afk), and you know that every character has some kind of relevance in any given story...**

 **Actually, you got the message I was trying to convey... Keima was just unprepared to have to deal with something like that, so he kind of spazzed... but yeah, Chihiro kind of tells Keima what she thinks, and it's all good.**

 **Though Chihiro and Keima in this story are going to give me cavities... If I knew how much I'd love writing about these guys, I should have gotten them together after chapter 1.**

 **Ah, and here you go... plot... though as xellos pointed out, a different kind of plot was continuing... I totally intended it like that... it wasn't like xellos opened my eyes or anything... I totally have control over this fanfiction...**

 **Nooooooo! This bloody story is writing itself, and I have no clue what I'm doing!**

 **xellos540- I love your eye for detail... though I'm surprised I'm talking about a colouring book that appeared in a single sentence 2 chapter ago... though honestly, the pencils really could be anyone's...**

 **Chaotic reviews are the best... as you can see, I'm not very big on structure...**

 **Indeed, Ishigami was a high schooler... I stalked his wikia page too and reread the chapter he was in... I swear I must count for a third of the views that page has, just coz I always wanted to pair him with Chihiro... heck, I had a mini ficlet where she met him during the Tanabata festival (in Minami's arc)... I need help...**

 **You're perfectly right... those issues were two different things, because they both have different feelings. Keima decided not to act on his and Chihiro made her own choice too, which involved a lot less on relying on her feelings. Honestly, I don't blame Keima for not confessing (also, coz I'm the one who made this plot up in the first place, so maybe my opinion doesn't count)**

 **Also, Keima telling Ayumi about what's happening... check-arino**

 **Though I'd say this chapter has been fairly low on dramatic conflict between those two... I'd say that majority of the character conflict this chapter comes down to the actual relationship between the characters, and not any given love triangle... though honestly, writing about Tenri is starting to make me tense...**

 **Oh my God, not only did you say something that is so obvious, but it actually blew my bloody mind. Though I think there's going to be a new plot point starting soon... I feel like I'm failing at not actually noticing something as obvious as this.**

 **Sorry, this took 13 days to write, apparently... ah well, I'm still trying.**

 **Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading, and I will see ya'll for day 2 next time! Ja ne!**


End file.
